Parties are one of the best parts of the holiday season. Along with the chance to get together with family and friends and exchange gifts, they’re the perfect excuse to drink until you don’t mind listening to the same 10 Christmas songs all night. If the responsibility of hosting falls on you this year, don’t worry! We’ve got a few apps that can help make the experience a lot less stressful.
Top 5 apps to help plan your holiday party
1. Doodle
As adults, we all have separate lives with responsibilities that make it difficult to meet up with others. Instead of trying to wrangle everyone in a group text or Facebook group where it’s easy to lose track of things, Doodle is an app where you can see who is available on what day.
Start by creating your event. Then, pick a few dates and times for your party that guests can choose from. After that’s all finished, you can send invites by text message, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, email, Twitter, and other methods. Once a participant receives the invite, they’ll select the date that’s best for them without having to download the app.
Your guests’ avaliability will show up in your Doodle page, and you can finalize your date from there. It’s such a relief to not have to contact a lot of people on a lot of different platforms and will really cut down on your workload. Available for iOS and Android.
2. Yummly
The most important part of the party is the food, of course! This could also be the most stressful part, but Yummly has you covered. Even after the holiday season, Yummly is a great app to have for day-to-day recipes. The first time you open the app, you’ll be prompted to select your favorite cuisines, enter any food allergies that you have, and foods that you just don’t like. From then on, it curates recipes that it thinks you’ll enjoy. For your holiday party, you can search by holiday and the app will scour the internet for the best Christmas cookie or Thanksgiving turkey recipes.
If you’re on a strict schedule, you can pick certain dishes by how much time you can spend to make them. Save recipes for later in pre-named categories, or make your own. If that isn’t cool enough, Yummly takes it a step further with their “Shopping List” function, where you can add ingredients manually so you’ll know what you need when you head to the grocery store. Available for iOS and Android.
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Read Now ►3. Tasty
If you’re on any social media platform, you’re sure to have crossed a Tasty video or two. Tasty recipe videos are super binge-worthy, not only having classic recipes but also putting new and creative spins on them. Tasty is not only great for food, but their drink selection is probably the most vast and aesthetically pleasing that you’ll see anywhere on the internet. Discover the top recipes that people are searching for today, or look up the specific drink that you’re looking for (five recipes just for eggnog!).
Add your recipes to your shopping list and your app will organize it for you. No more circling the grocery store, going back and forth between aisles for items that you forgot. Tap the ingredients that you have in your cart, and they’ll be crossed out on the list. If a recipe is a success, add it to your “Would Make Again” list so you can easily go back and access your favorites. Available for iOS and Android.
4. Instacart
Instacart is a lifesaver when it comes to holiday parties. Let’s say that you’ve already spent two hours at the grocery store, and once you’ve dragged all of the heavy bags inside when you get home, you realize you’ve forgotten a key ingredient. Or, maybe you’ve been cleaning all day to prepare for the party and you just don’t feel like grocery shopping at all. Let the awesome shoppers at Instacart do it for you! Just enter your basic info, and select from the available stores around for groceries and alcohol. Add everything you need to your cart, and let the shoppers know if they can substitute an item for another if the one you want isn’t available. Handle your other chores and the groceries arrive at your door!
Instacart is updated constantly, so make sure that you check the coupon page to take advantage of the savings. Available for iOS and Android.
5. Heads Up!
After all the food has been eaten and everyone’s had a few drinks each, there’s nothing more fun than playing a game with all of your guests. Heads Up! is a hilarious, family-friendly guessing game. Split into two teams and pick a category, from sports teams to blockbuster movies.
With one team playing at a time, a single player is selected who holds their phone against their forehead for their team to see. The team describes the person, place or thing shown on the phone and the winner of the round is the team who had the most correct answers after everyone has played once. For particularly goofy moments, you can watch a video replay of your friends’ crazy charades. New categories are added frequently so it’s no wonder that Heads Up! has been one of the most fun party game apps for the last five years. Available for iOS and Android.
Now that you have your food, drinks, games, and guests, you’ll all set to have the most epic holiday party of the year. Have fun!
