Hosting this holiday season? Good news: there’s an app (or several) for that! With family members coming in from out of town, menus to plan, gifts to buy, and cards to send it can be challenging to keep track of everything that needs to be done to throw a cheerful holiday affair. These great apps can help you get ready for the holidays so that your hosting experience can be merry and bright.
Scheduling and Invitations
Sometimes it may seem like your family doesn’t even need an invite to show up to your house during the holidays. However, if you have more formal tastes, try Fete. Fete is more than just an e-vite service, it’s also a platform that allows you to coordinate with guests to find the best time and place for everyone. You can also track RSVPs, plus ones, and chat with guests within the app.
Once you decide on a place, time and date, you can use Cozi to organize your upcoming holiday plans. The app allows you to keep all Holiday and non-holiday activities and appointments in one place, and create and share shopping lists and chores across your family. You can use Cozi to remind you to pick up butter at the store on your way home from your kids’ holiday recitals.
Holiday Cards
Totally forgot to layout personalized holiday cards with family pictures this year? JustWink can help you out by providing beautiful, original seasonal cards that you can purchase through their app, which is available for both Android and iOS. They have a card for every family member and their personality.
Decorating and Giftwrapping
If you’re planning and hosting this year, you might not have time for the small tasks such as setting up decorations, cleaning the house or even giftwrapping. That’s where TaskRabbit comes in. The app connects you with a tasker that will do your small tasks for a fee. They take care of the small tasks so you can focus on the big items on your list this year.
Food
Even the most experienced hosts can use an extra hand when it comes to storing recipes, making grocery lists, and pairing food and drinks. These apps can help. Paprika can help you store all of your recipes in one place and access them easily when the holidays come around. The app can help you sort ingredients needed for your recipes so you’ll know where to find everything you’ll need.
Another option for organizing recipes and building easily-shareable shopping lists is AnyList. One special feature of the AnyList app is that you can add photos with each item. You can send your kids or less experienced cooks to the store to buy niche items and feel confident that they will come home with exactly what you need.
Gift Giving
If you plan out your gift giving each year with a budget and a list, Santa’s Bag is the app for you. In the app, you can keep track of each person you plan to gift, a budget for each, whether that gift has been purchased and even if it has been wrapped. The app includes an area to record gift ideas, stocking stuffers, and allows you to purchase through certain stores directly through the app. Santa’s bag is only available for IOS, but Christmas Gift List has much of the same functionality for Android.
You’ve made your list and checked it twice; now you just need to track all of the packages that should be pouring in. Apps like Deliveries and Rakuten Slice can take all of your package delivery notifications and organize them in one place. Slice can also store your online receipts and alert you if the price on an item dropped after your purchase and let you know how to get a refund.
Hosting during the holidays can be hectic, but technology can help you plan ahead. Nothing can guarantee that your holidays won’t have a few unforeseen snags. However, these apps can help you get over any hurdles and back to celebrating with your family and friends.
