The holidays are upon us once again, and that means lots of festivities and parties galore! But if you're in charge of planning a party for New Year's, it may be a bit overwhelming. Don't worry; there are some great apps out there that will help you put together the best holiday party ever!
Todoist
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The first step in planning a holiday party is, well, planning. Todoist helps you organize all of the tasks and shopping lists that you need, including subtasks! That's not common in a lot of to-do apps, and Todoist is also very popular for collaboration. This means you can share your projects and lists with others so that everyone is on the same page and won't be overstepping on someone else's duties.
Todoist can send you reminders and notifications when things need to be done, and it's super easy to add new tasks and items, even at the last minute! There is also a lot of third-party app and service integration with Todoist, so you can have it work with Dropbox, Amazon Alexa, Slack, Zapier, IFTTT, and more. You can also view how good you are at staying on task over time, and there is a premium subscription that offers more features.
Evite
For any holiday party or special occasion, you should be sending out invites. But don't waste paper; just use Evite and send them out digitally. No waste needed.
With the Evite app, you can choose from thousands of different designs for your invitations, which means a ton of holiday themes, and then some. You can customize your invitations with the provided details, and then send them to friends and family in a few different ways. There is always email, but you can also send the invitations by SMS, or share it on social media like Facebook. If someone is taking too long to respond, you can give them a gentle nudge to remind them of their invitation and that you need an RSVP.
All events made with Evite let guests submit their own media to share with others at the event, and it's all open for commenting as well. No matter what kind of event you're planning, Evite will help you get the word out.
Need some inspiration for cute holiday decor, recipes, and pretty much anything else cute and interesting? Then Pinterest is the app you should be checking out.
With Pinterest, you're bound to find a ton of inspirational ideas for your holiday party, whether it's decorations, tasty snacks, recipes for main courses, and even drinks. It's all about the visuals, and you can pretty much save any "pin" to your own collection to refer back to later. Every pin also has a link back to the original source, so you can always get the info you need or share it with others with a few clicks.
There is a Safari extension that lets you pin anything you find interesting in Safari to your Pinterest account directly, so it's easy peasy!
Paprika 3
You're going to find some amazing holiday recipes to cook up for your guests, but how do you keep track of them all? With Paprika 3, of course!
Paprika is one of the best recipe management apps that you can get on the App Store, period. It's great all year round, not just for the holidays, and I have personally been using it for years. You can use the Safari extension to download and save recipes directly from Safari, and the app itself lets you organize all of your saved recipes into folders and categories. Quickly make grocery lists based on what recipe you select, and there is even a meal planner for the month if you want to get ahead of yourself. With Paprika's free syncing service, you can access all of your recipes on iOS and Mac, and there are no in-app purchases.
Tasty
What is a holiday party without food? With Tasty, you'll find thousands of delicious recipes, all at your fingertips!
Tasty has curated over 4000 recipes in one place, and you can search for what you're looking for specifically, or just get inspired by recommendations and the latest recipes. Every recipe has step-by-step instructions, tons of photos, and even videos if you need to see how it's done. No matter what ingredients you want to use or dietary restrictions you and your guests have, you'll find pretty much anything in Tasty. If anything catches your eye, just make sure to save them in "My Recipes" for later!
Cocktail Flow
Like food, alcoholic drinks are a staple of holiday parties. I mean, how can you have one without the other? That's right; you can't! Cocktail Flow is an app that will help you keep the guests happy with flowing booze.
You don't have to be a seasoned bartender to serve up delicious cocktails that quench everyone's thirst this holiday or next, because there are a ton of drinks for every occasion! With Cocktail Flow, you get beautifully presented cocktail recipes with step-by-step instructions, so it's impossible to screw it up. You can browse all of the cocktails by base drink, type, and strength. If you have some alcohol already on hand, just tell it what you have, and it'll fetch recipes you could use with what you have. To top it all off, Cocktail Flow is full of stunning drink photography, so you can even see how a drink is supposed to look at the end.
Cocktail Flow is always taking suggestions on recipes to include in the app, so just drop them a line at team@cocktailflow.com if you can't find something.
Spotify
Finally, you're going to need some holiday music — after all, 'tis the season! With Spotify, you will have access to a ton of holiday hits, and then some.
Even with a Spotify free account, you'll gain access to the vast Spotify library. You can find your favorite holiday songs and make a playlist to play during your party in shuffle mode. If you have Spotify Premium, you can listen however you want, enjoy ad-free tunes, listen offline, get better audio quality, and more. Spotify even features podcasts now, so you can fire up a holiday music podcast and get in the spirit of the season!
Spread that holiday cheer!
What are your party plans for the holidays? Do you have your own favorite apps that you like to us? Let us know in the comments!
