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You know what makes everything, including time-consuming food- and football-oriented-holidays like Thanksgiving, better? Apps!
If you’re hosting dinner this year, you’ve probably gotten most of your recipes and planning covered, so we won’t waste your time with a ton of recipe apps (OK… maybe just one). But aside from dinner, you might be flailing — what wines are you going to serve with cornbread stuffing? How are you going to keep the kids from spending 20 hours staring at older relatives’ smartphones? Is anybody really going to wake up at 9 a.m. PST on Saturday morning to watch #3 Michigan beat #2 Ohio State? Here are some apps that can help you with all of these things (well, maybe not the waking up on Saturday morning).
Food Network In the Kitchen
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: Free
Food Network In the Kitchen is a great all-around recipe app featuring recipes from your favorite Food Network stars. The app has a whole section for Thanksgiving (naturally), which includes recipes for appetizers, stuffing, turkeys, cranberry sauce, biscuits, potatoes and other side dishes, plus Thanksgiving meal plans from chefs Giada, Bobby Flay and Sunny Anderson. Many recipes feature video tutorials, and all recipes can be added to a recipe box or a shopping list (though you’ll need to set up a Food Network account to save these). There’s even a section on how to use leftovers!
Multi Timer StopWatch
Platforms: Android
Price: Free (in-app purchases)
Enlarge ImageSarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
A successful Thanksgiving dinner is all about timing — but you probably only have one or two dedicated timers in your kitchen. Multi Timer StopWatch is a free ad-supported multiple timer app with several handy features, such as a text-to-speech option (the app can tell you which timer has just ended). The app also supports gestures, so you can simply wave your hand over your phone to turn an alarm off, which is perfect for when you’re cooking.
Timer+
Platforms: iOS
Price: Free (in-app purchases)
Enlarge ImageSarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
For iPhone users, Timer+ is a great free (ad-supported) multiple timer app. This app isn’t as feature-rich as Multi Timer StopWatch, but it does allow you to quickly and easily set up multiple timers, each with their own individual alarm sounds and colors. You can also edit individual timers at any time by tapping them — change their alarm sound, color, name, or add a minute with a quick tap.
Hello Vino
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: Free
Enlarge ImageSarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
Want to impress your guests? Use Hello Vino to determine the perfect wine to pair with dinner — the app offers wine suggestions for a variety of situations, including holiday-specific pairings (yes, there’s a list of wine pairings just for Thanksgiving). The app suggests different wines for different types of Thanksgiving dinners, including turkey versus ham preparations and for different types of side dishes (stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and so on).
Thanksgiving Day Photo Frames
Platforms: Android
Price: Free
Enlarge ImageSarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
Make your not-so-tech-savvy relatives’ day with Thanksgiving photos that have been spruced up with this app. The Thanksgiving Day Photo Frames app offers 15 cheesy-but-cute holiday-themed photo frames that you can place your photos in (either from your camera or your gallery). The app itself is full of ads and a little clunky, but it gets the job done and I’m sure your grandmother will love it.
Macy’s Parade Time Traveler
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: Free
Macy’s is always trying to make its Thanksgiving day parade technologically-relevant, and this year they may have succeeded with the Macy’s Parade Time Traveler app. This app lets you view the parade (or, well, part of it) in different eras — 1935, 1965 and 1985. You can also take a “vintage selfie,” which basically puts you inside one of those parades, or create your own parade by collecting virtual balloons at Macy’s stores in the US.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: $5.99
The classic Charlie Brown Thanksgiving story is now an interactive reading experience, thanks to the magic of apps. This app is great for kids who need something more interactive than the regular ol’ TV special — they can tap just about everything (words, characters, the environment and background) for movement or interaction.
Heads Up!
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: $0.99
If you want to get adults involved in the fun, a party game like Heads Up! is perfect. Heads Up! is sort of like reverse charades — one person holds the phone up to their forehead and then tries to guess what’s on the phone (a person, character, phrase and so on) based on what everybody else is saying or acting out.
Who Can’t Draw?
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: Free (in-app purchases)
While Heads Up! requires some movement, Who Can’t Draw? is the perfect party game for when you’re sitting around the table. This is a game of Pictionary-meets-telephone: The first person draws a picture from the clue they’re given, and the next person draws a picture based on the first person’s picture, and the next person draws a picture based on the second person’s picture, and so forth. The last person to receive the phone guesses the clue based on the second-to-last person’s picture, and then everybody gets to vote on the worst picture.
ESPN
Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: Free
Enlarge ImageSarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
For some people, Thanksgiving is just an excuse to take the weekend off of work and watch football. But there are so many games all weekend long that it’s hard to keep track of the scores, rivalries, and rises (and falls) in standings. That’s why you need the ESPN app, which lets you track your favorite sports and teams and get updates and alerts for news, scoring plays and results. The app takes a little setting up (and an ESPN account), so I suggest downloading it now, in preparation.
