Christmas may be (mostly) enjoyable for many of us, but it can also be stressful and busy. So what can tech do to help? Plenty, if you know the right place to look.
You don’t need to pay lots of money for fancy apps; your phone has powerful organisational tools built in. Take Apple, for example. You have Notes and Reminders apps that can create handy lists across your Mac laptop, your iPad and iPhone. Christmas lists will be at your fingertips; reminders can be triggered by date or location. And, most importantly, notes can be locked to keep them away from prying eyes on the hunt for Christmas gifts.
Google, meanwhile, has Google Tasks, which is a handy way of organising your life. It’s a Google app but you will have to install it from the Play Store as it is not included as part of the core Android system. Once you start using the app, you can keep track of your tasks across Google Workspace, so it will pop up alongside your Gmail on your desktop, for example.
Track your packages
Still waiting on the last few holiday gifts to land? You can track your packages through your smartphone with very little effort.
If you buy online, Gmail will help you keep track of your packages, sending updates to your inbox, with more detailed options for those with a tracking number contained in the message. On Android, go to the Gmail app, tap the three lines for the Menu, tap Settings, and select the account on which you want to activate package tracking. Scroll down and select package tracking.
If you use the app on Apple’s iOS, go to Menu>Settings>Data Privacy and scroll down to package tracking to enable it.
If you pay for your goods through Apple Pay, your phone’s Wallet app can keep track of your orders and send you straight to the delivery company’s website. Once you add a delivery to the wallet, notifications on their status will appear at the top of your inbox, including one to say it has been delivered.
Plan your journeys
The run-up to Christmas is a busy one, and we don’t have a lot of time to spare sitting in traffic. There are apps that can help you plan your journey better, giving you real-time updates about journey times and allowing you to choose not only a better route, but maybe a better mode of transport.
Take Google Maps, for example. The app will give you approximate journey times based on traffic data it has available, so it changes based on time of day or when unexpected events, such as a crash or roadworks, snarl up a road. It also gives you the journey times for alternate modes of transport – walking, cycling, taxi, public transport – and gives detailed directions for them all. Sometimes, you really would be quicker walking.
If you do need to get in the car though, it is best to be armed with all the information. Waze uses data from Google Maps to tell you not only when it will be best to leave to get to your destination on time, it also alerts you to hazards along the way – debris on the road, a stopped car and other potential hazards – that could affect your drive.
Downtime
When the festive cheer starts to get a little too much, don’t doomscroll on social media and wonder why everyone else seems to be having a perfect Christmas. Although your smartphone could be part of the problem, it could redeem itself a little if you have the right tools.
Subscription apps such as Calm or Headspace can help you into a calmer, more relaxed place. Imagine Cillian Murphy lulling you to sleep during a bout of pre-Christmas anxiety, or Matthew McConaughey helping you to focus on your relaxation (both on Calm).
A bit of mid-Christmas Day meditation could also come in handy right around the time that the arguments have begun or the in-laws are starting to clash, and you feel like your nerves are stretched to the limit.
For younger members of the family, check out Cosmic Kids Yoga. The perfect thing to help smooth out the sugar highs and excitement of Christmas Day, your children can do Christmas themed yoga sessions to help them calm down or wind down for bedtime with Bop the Alien’s 10 minutes to bed routines. There are also mindfulness sessions aimed at helping children deal with the worries or that give them tools to deal with stressful situations, in an age appropriate and fun way.
Food
From meal planning to cooking skills, technology has a lot up its sleeve to help in the kitchen.
If you want to learn a few new skills in time for Christmas, Craftsy covers everything from table centrepieces to handmade gifts. But it also includes some useful cooking guides that can level up your Christmas catering. Want to make your own sweets? It has you covered. Barely able to boil an egg? There is a section aimed at beginners.
If you want to get the whole family involved though, there are some services that are aimed specifically at getting children into the kitchen. One Yummy Mummy, which is run by award-winning food writer Jolene Cox, offers a “Kids in the Kitchen” virtual class every week that will teach your children valuable lessons for life.
Not only does membership include access to all the recipes in her vault, but each week, there is a live “cook along” class with Jolene and her daughter Lils that kids join in via Zoom, with a playback available on the site for those who want to access it later. In the run-up to Christmas, there are a number of festive recipes on the site – tear and share Christmas tree, anyone? – plus recipes to turn to when the turkey and ham get a little too much.
....plus some for next year
Wifi plugs: Not everything needs to be smart. But in the case of the humble plug, we have wholeheartedly embraced it. It started with the Christmas tree – being able to turn on and off the tree lights without risking a branch in the eye is an underappreciated benefit of connected devices. The plugs are connected to your home network, allowing you to control them remotely via their own app, or through Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Homekit, depending on their compatibility.
So instead of fumbling for the switch and getting pine needles everywhere, you can simply tap your phone’s screen, set a schedule to make sure that the lights turn on (and off) at the right time, or sit back and command Google/Alexa/Siri to do it for you.
Smart appliances: While not everything needs to be smart, there are some things that can help you if you need some support in the cooking department. Take the crop of smart appliances that are available. While many are unnecessary – who really needs a wifi-enabled air fryer, for example? – there are some features that are nice to have, if not essential.
Neff’s smart ovens, for example, give you the ability to control the oven from wherever you are through the app, so there is no more panicking about getting delayed and the knock-on effect for dinner. Bosch offers similar functionality, also through the Home Connect app, alongside guided recipes and settings that can be sent directly to the appliance.
And there is more to come. Irish company Fresco has been working with global partners to bring its smart kitchen platform to appliance makers such as Kenwood, Instant Brands and Thermomix. The plan is to create appliances that guide you through the entire process, across multiple appliance manufacturers and devices, from the mixer to the oven, with step-by-step recipes.
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