Check Out These Indispensable Christmas Apps

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I am not happy to report that humbug.com has nothing to do with the holiday season – alas, not marleywasdead.com, but I am sure that it will be noticed if anyone ever decides to make another animated version of ” Christmas” … Carol. (Pixar?)

However, there are plenty of holiday-themed websites you can use to cheer up your season a bit (or kill some time on the weekend). While I hesitate to call this an exhaustive list of useful holiday sites, as someone would definitely post a link in the comments about some elf snowball game that piques my interest for half a day, I think it’s a pretty solid list covering most of the what everyone is doing this time of year.

Ready? Buckle your Santa hat and let ‘s get started.

To track Secret Santa gift exchanges

You will want to check out Elfster , which is highly recommended on various forums on the internet, and at least 10 out of 12 deer. How many “official deer” are there? It seems to be eight now, but I don’t want to sing a song to check. Either way, Elfster is completely free to use as long as you can convince everyone in your current pool to register on the site. Once you’ve done that, setting up a gift exchange (which ensures you don’t paint yourself by accident) is easy.

To find out if it’s Christmas or not

Well? This? Install the Is It Christmas website ? as your browser home page, so you know right away when it’s time to pester your friends and family to open gifts.

For festive lighting repairs without going out into the cold

If your loved ones love to drag you out of your cozy warm home and onto therugged street to watch someone dazzle their neighborhood with an absurd display of home lighting, you might be able to skip this year’s holiday events if you convince them that headlamp viewing is practically the case. fun – without any of the downsides of a runny nose. Moreover, you do not need to sit in thousands of traffic jams to fix the situation on vacation.

When you have no snow

Speaking of virtual reality, if you want to take part in the youth-tested tradition of epic snowball fights but don’t want to be dirty or cold – or if you’re in a warmer climate, you can throw ice virtually. Try Happy Snowballs , a fun little game for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Android devices like Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard. Turn it on and spend hours bombarding other (computer) players with virtual slush.

If you prefer to just enjoy a winter wonderland without being chained to your head by a cold ball, try Snow Mountain VR for compatible Android devices or the soothing Ice Lakes (for HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, Android and iOS devices) if you prefer to simulate freezing while fishing.

For those who are poorly versed in spatial visualization

You may not have bought a tree for your house or apartment yet. If you’re putting this off because you’re not sure if you can actually fit a tree into your living space, you might want to try before buying using your iPhone.

Pull out your iPhone (running iOS 12), download the Target app, find the “Christmas tree,” scroll down and tap on the augmented reality feature that allows you to place a virtual tree in your real space. By looking at the supported trees, you can see how well they fit.

I couldn’t find any AR Christmas trees on the Amazon app . Trees, yes. Other AR objects, yes. Virtual trees? No.

Wayfair , another popular retailer with “augmented reality” features in its app, had a variety of trees, including those that you can add virtually to your environment. However, the implementation of the application is more like a “see how it looks” approach. You place, move and scale the object with your fingers, which unfortunately does not help you determine if the tree will fit in your space.

When you don’t know which tree to buy

There are many different types of Christmas trees – I myself prefer them upside down, but that’s just me. If you do not know what to choose, the site aptly named « Pick Your Own Christmas Tree.org » has a good exposition (and chart) of what you get with each option. I would compare potential picks to the descriptions in Davey to make sure you are not getting anything that your jewelry stacks cannot handle. Yes, and don’t forget to water your purchase .

Alternatively, you can say “damn it” and project the Christmas tree onto the white sheet you hung in front of your living room window. Or you can write a little tree on your computer or laptop:

For planning a cool holiday party

When you’re lonely

To give yourself (or your kids) a little extra holiday cheer, ask your Amazon Echo how many days are left until [insert the holiday you celebrate]. You can also ask Alexa to “tell me a Christmas story”, which should randomly play one of three fairy tales every time you make a request. And if you’re feeling brave, you can even ask Alexa to “sing me a holiday song.” She will even do it with her voice. It’s a bit strange. And if your heart needs to grow three sizes larger, ask Alexa to tell you about the true meaning of Christmas.

To watch the best Christmas movie over and over again and

Around this time of year, a Muppet Christmas song is playing in my house. It’s just that (and who doesn’t love a good performance of “Marley and Marley “). While you can certainly find these holiday classics on one of the many popular streaming sites, JustWatch has a great overview of all the places you can stream, rent or buy.

And since you may not see it in the version you are watching, here is a lovely song cut from most of the released versions of the film. Deception.

Best Festive Soundtrack

For whatever reason, you can find the complete soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – the delightful jazz from Vince Guaraldi’s trio – at Archive.org . It doesn’t seem particularly legal as I don’t remember this album ever going into the public domain, but that’s Archive.org’s problem, not mine. Put this on, toss the log into the fireplace and relax during your vacation.

To annoy everyone with non-stop holiday tunes

If your tastes for seasonal music are more versatile and you want to rock holiday jams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout December, you have a variety of options to choose from. You can use radio-locator.com to find radio stations near you that are continuously streaming classic vacation music . Or, if you prefer to stream music over the Internet, try checking out ChristmasFM , which lets you switch between five different holiday broadcasts: Ireland Station, North Pole Station, Classical Music Station, Classical Music Station, and UK Station. …

If you’re not too much of a holiday music enthusiast, consider compromising on a stream like Soma FM’s Christmas Lounge – a stream full of “chilly holiday tunes and classic winter lounge tracks” that’s a little nicer than having to hear this annoying rock version of “Bell Song” once an hour.

To pretend you’re in a winter wonderland

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so the concepts of “log burning in a fireplace” and “snow gently falling to the ground” are not really what I think about this time of year – unless I go to Tahoe or something. This is why I love the Snowy Escape site. Like the festive version of the white noise generator, this simple website gives you an endless loop of crackling fireplaces and snowy winds to make you feel like you’ve locked yourself in a gorgeous log cabin instead of being stuck in a messy apartment for a long time. holiday.

For Yule logs all day every day

I can’t count how many different videos I have seen showing something in front of the Svittochnik magazine over a long period of time. Many of them are adorable – whether you use them as a backdrop during your holiday party or enjoy watching someone struggle against a survivor- like endurance test. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

To unlock your heart before it’s too late

There are many different versions of the Christmas carol that you can choose from for the holiday season. I am a fan of the musical, especially whenGeorge Costanza sings the vocals of everyone’s favorite tortured holiday character. I also love the simple classic without the fuss, especially when read by the British on the BBC. In this streamed version of Dickens’ classic, you can even read while you listen – fun for the entire sugar plum-loving family.

To chase a big man with gifts

If you’re still doing the same as Santa, you can watch him fly through the sky using the officialSanta Claus tracker NORAD – a time-honored tradition. It’s probably much more modern to take your smartphone and call or talk to it on your Google-approved device , but that’s just me.

And, yes, Google also has a Santa tracker. Heck, there is an entire holiday village here that you can explore while you wait for someone you can’t bribe to arrive. I’m a kid. I’m going to put Juicy Lucy on my plate on December 24th and I hope that’s enough to buy me a Pugsheen this year.

To find out more about the biggest VIPs for the holiday season

Of course, everyone has heard of Santa and you can probably name most of the eight deer. But how well do you know all the major pop culture icons that have anything to do with the holiday season? Try the Fun Quizzes and let us know how you did it – unless your score is more “Yokel Yuletid” than “The Great Tinsel-Covered Viceroy of the Holiday.”

For real tracking of everything that comes to your home during the holidays

I love that I can see all the postage, UPS and FedEx that are sent to my home , even if that means I also get too many notifications about my roommates’ things (in the case of USPS , that is). Sign up for free tracking services from each of the Big Three and you’ll never miss a gift on your porch.

For being strange during the holidays

I have a Lego Christmas calendar that I just bought because I needed tiny Star Wars figures – damn the delayed gratification. I prefer the XP WebGL Christmas Calendar . It’s fun and showcases a wide range of creative content and rendering from a group of amazing digital artists.

For giving back a little

On Reddit, you can take part in two incredible gift programs, one is 100% bounty and the other is quid pro quo. If you want to brighten up someone’s day and give him or someone they profile with an unexpected gift, I recommend you check out the Random Acts of Christmas subreddit . Pick a person, send a gift (a good note never hurts either), and feel good about doing good. It is so simple.

Otherwise, if you want a more traditional gift exchange, you’ll want to bookmark next year’s Redditgifts as Secret Santa subscriptions usually end around the end of November. However, there are many other gift exchanges that you can sign up for in the meantime. Hope you get some cool stuff.

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