It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but also the most stressful. Shopping for gifts, preparing meals, and entertaining family are just some of the tasks that can pile up before and after the holidays. Good news. We are here to help.
We’ve rounded up the best apps to help you plan your holiday season. This allows you to turn your phone into an all-in-one problem-solving tool. Need a recipe for Christmas dinner? Is there an easy way to manage Secret Santa for the whole family? Is there something to entertain the little ones in the new year? You’ve come to the right place.
Here’s a list of the best apps to help you manage this holiday season, along with advice on navigating the app store and how to make sure you get the best cell phone plan for your new apps.
How we chose the best apps
-
easy to use
We focused on a simple and intuitive interface so you can start working immediately after downloading. -
Can be used all year round
These selections are a great addition to the holiday season, but they’re also useful tools throughout the calendar year. -
availability
We have selected apps that are available on both iOS and Android. The more the better!
Best apps to hack your holiday travels
best app for
holiday shopping
Cuddle
Whether you’re shopping for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Boxing Day, it doesn’t take long for expenses to pile up. You may even get some money back in the process. That’s the concept behind Caddle, an app that rewards you with every purchase.
With this app, you can earn cash back on regular purchases like groceries, gas, shopping, and more just by scanning your receipts. Sure, the real reward of buying holiday gifts for your loved ones is seeing the joy on their faces…but wouldn’t it also be nice to get some money back in the process?
Fetch, a popular rewards app in the US, isn’t available in Canada, but we think Caddle is just as good. Even better, if you want to take surveys or watch ads, you can earn extra rewards on Caddle, but these tasks are not required. All you have to do is record your purchases and watch your money grow.
best christmas
wishlist app
gift star
Buying the perfect gift can be a daunting task, and it only gets harder as you get older. We recommend moving from letters to Santa to a wishlist app that makes it easy to send presents and everyone involved goes home happy.
The best of them is Giftster. This allows users to post their wishlists and make them visible to other users (specified within their family or friends group). Users can control the details of the items in their list, right down to the URLs where they can purchase those items. When a user’s gift is purchased, it is marked as purchased to avoid the same gift being purchased twice for her. But don’t worry. That information is never displayed to the recipient. What’s fun about that?
Giftster is a very simple app, and that’s why we love it. It seamlessly integrates links from Amazon and other online retailers, but it’s not packed with ads or in-app purchases. Simply automate an otherwise headache-inducing process.
best recipe app
cookpad
There’s no shortage of free online recipes, but if you’ve ever searched for meal instructions on Google, you know that search results can be littered with pop-up additions, misleading articles, and lukewarm recommendations. Cooking is already busy enough in itself. Moving your recipe search from the web to the app streamlines the entire process.
We like what Cookpad, a relatively new recipe app, has to offer: no sign-up fees, plenty of user-submitted recipes, and a clean, easy-to-read interface. You can search by the dish you want to make or the ingredients you want to use, so you can think of your next dish based on your grand plans or what you have on hand. (Seriously, what should I do with these shallots?)
You can save other users’ recipes or add your own, turning the app into a Rolodex of instructions for your holiday gathering. Whether you’re aiming for a classic Christmas dish or looking for a way to make dairy-free cookies for your vegan cousin, Cookpad has enough easy recipes to get you started. .
The app is free, but also offers a premium subscription for $3.99 per month. This includes several perks, including the ability to save an unlimited number of recipes. I think the free version is fine, but I like that the subscription is affordable if you want to use it every night.
make a plan to eat
-
price: 14-day free trial, $75.31/year -
device: iOS, Android
If you’re looking for a premium culinary experience, Plan to Eat is the place to go. Similar to Cookpad in many ways, it lets you organize your recipes in an easy-to-use app. However, Plan to Eat is a little more sophisticated, allowing you to import recipes from across the web, create a calendar of meals (and their corresponding recipes), and even arrange for ingredients to be delivered from your local grocery store. can. .
best holiday
entertainment app
heads up!
After exchanging gifts and washing the dishes, you wonder: What should I do about these people? Having interactive games for all ages is a must at any holiday gathering. We recommend Heads Up!, an app-based charades game.
Game play is easy. Select a deck (including celebrities, movies, animals, and even themed options like Harry Potter or Marvel), hold your smartphone to your forehead, and others in the room can see the phrases on the deck. Masu. It will appear on the screen and give you enough hints until you can guess.
heads up! It’s not free, but it’s not expensive either. Get access to dozens of decks for just $2.99 and enjoy hours of gameplay. If you want to continue using it, you can purchase additional decks if you get tired of the decks included with your purchase.
How much data does the app use?
Every time you use the app, it will use a portion of your monthly data on your phone plan. However, most apps don’t use that much data. Browsing Facebook only uses about 80 MB per hour, while listening to podcasts uses about 60 MB per hour.
What will your data be used for?: Analysis
|
Amount of data per hour |
danger |
---|---|---|
online game | From 3MB | Mild |
podcast | Approximately 60MB | low |
web browsing | Approximately 60MB | low |
Approximately 80MB | low | |
face time | Approximately 85MB | low |
music streaming | Maximum 150MB | Mild |
snapchat | Approximately 160MB | Mild |
facebook video | Approximately 160MB | Mild |
YouTube | Approximately 300MB | Mild |
Netflix | From 250MB | expensive |
lossless music streaming | Approximately 640MB | expensive |
Approximately 720MB | expensive | |
tick tock | Approximately 840MB | expensive |
If you’re planning on using a new vacation planning app this winter, you may want to consider a cell phone plan with unlimited data.In Canada, unlimited plans aren’t really unlimited, but they do offer unlimited access It is stored in your data and allows you to use the app even if you exceed your monthly allowance.
That being said, I don’t think most people need an unlimited data plan. The average Canadian uses less than 6 GB of data each month, including app usage. We prefer plans like Virgin Plus’ $39 plan that offers a good amount of data for an affordable monthly fee. This plan offers unlimited calls and texts, plus 10GB of his 5G data on the Bell network nationwide.
If you’re looking for a little more monthly data, we recommend Public Mobile’s Unlimited Canada Wide Talk + Text + 30 GB plan. Public Mobile is a prepaid 5G carrier that offers access to its nationwide Telus network at more affordable rates than its parent company. I also like that public mobile plans don’t lock you into a contract, so you can switch if a better carrier comes along.