If planning a dinner event or party can be stressful, then hosting the whole brood for a bang-up Christmas do is downright nerve-wracking. Who's coming, who eats what, who drinks what, where do they sit, what decorations are needed, how much time in the kitchen, table-settings, thank you cards, Christmas crackers, a children's corner... it all gets a bit much.
So why not approach it the way people handle pretty much everything these days - by grabbing the nearest cellphone. With the plethora of apps and mobi sites available for the most avid of party planners, help is at hand, quite literally, when it comes to organising this year's Christmas celebration.
Get sorted
When juggling piles of different tasks, organisation is key, which is where the host of mobile calendar apps available prove mighty useful. Some of these widgets act as a virtual PA, sending reminders, noting RSVPs, sorting lists and ticking off to-do tasks, all from one easily-accessible user interface.
For those with Android phones, the Android Agenda widget displays the time, date and details of an event on the home screen, so you can quickly view it without having to scroll through dozens of menus. It also integrates with various calendar tools, including Google Calendar, Motorola Exchange, Google Exchange, Activesync Calendar, Astrid, SSI gTask and Dato GTask, so all your information is available both on the original calendar and widget.
Users can choose from various settings to display the date, time and events from the selected calendar, so you know exactly when that organic Christmas market is on, or that the bakery closes early tomorrow. One option creates an app icon which when clicked displays the quick agenda version of the calendar, so you can access events quickly but also get more detailed info if necessary.
Agenda is highly customisable, both in terms of functionality and appearance, with different layout themes, skins, text sizes, and tasks to choose from.
BlackBerry users are pretty well off with the phone's own calendar feature, but those who are a stickler for design can buy the e-Mobile Planner app. It lets you arrange, edit, add and delete events by date and time, and view event details by content and location, which is handy for planning trips to the shops, so you don't have to face the festive season masses twice in one day.
It offers a day, week, month, and task view, similar to the standard BlackBerry calendar, and also features customisation options for changing background colours and making specific dates stand out. It is pricey though, at $19.99.
iPhone fans are fortunate in that there are literally dozens of calendar and task management apps. Organizer acts like a real-life organiser, with the ability to add pictures, links and other media, which could be useful for Christmas party planning. You can include recipes if you have to go shopping for ingredients, maps of places to pick up flowers or decorations, and pictures of gifts you have in mind.
For mobile Web options, try the range of party and event planning sites out there. Kuandoo is particularly helpful if you need to collaborate with others on things like who is bringing food and drinks, or presents. While perhaps not ideal for a more formal dinner, it does cut down all the time-consuming individual messages and mails to determine who's coming/driving/drinking and so on. It allows everyone attending to know what's happening, cutting out middle man messages, and helping with things like budgeting.
Punchbowl is similar, although it caters more for individual planning, allowing users to design their own invites, search vendor lists, and manage events from start to finish (for serious control freaks). Punchbowl is free, although users have the option to upgrade their membership for premium services like personalising events and customising e-cards.
The site also lets users set a date via an algorithm that recommends the best time and day for everyone involved, track RSVPs, and check to-do lists. Add to that message boards, Google Maps integration and sharing of comments, photos, and videos, and you have the all-time mobile party planning service.
Remember the milk is great for list fanatics, allowing you to make lists on your phone instead of boards you can't take with you, tiny sticky notes or those scraps of paper that always get lost. It lets you set due dates and create task clouds; receive reminders via e-mail, SMS, and IM; and store notes along with tasks.
You can print your entire list or weekly planner, and view tasks on your phone's calendar, as it's compatible with Apple iCal and Google Calendar. A full-featured app is also available for iPhone and Android devices, and BlackBerry users can synchronise 'Remember the milk' tasks with their phone's built-in Tasks application.
Finally, Pegby recreates the old cork board concept on a phone, so you can carry bits and pieces of info along easily. Similar to a real board, friends and family can post comments on a common area, so if Aunt Nellie sees you're planning to make fruitcake, she can add her special recipe. A fun, collaborative way to plan the big day.
Invitation only
Once you've got your calendar and lists sorted, you can move onto the actual invites, which has been made easy with the various digital tools available. No more buying reams of paper and ribbon, sitting for hours cutting and pasting, and posting stuff off. Now you can design, customise, address and send invites in a flash, and keep track of everything in one place that's accessible anytime.
Paperless Post is a really easy-to-use site with a store of designs, from text to envelopes, so users can create truly one-of-a-kind invites (goldfish motifs, gothic writing - it's up to you). Use and send invites for free (there are also options to pay for premium content) and keep track of who has received invites, who's confirmed and who has declined.
Evite is another free invitation service which allows users to select an invitation design, add guests' details and send it to their inbox. Users can also customise invite features, such as adding polls for guests to answer (Mexican or Chinese food? Light rock or classical for background music?), and letting guests select items to bring. Guest replies are tracked automatically so the host always has an accurate headcount.
If you're into really creative design, Pingg lets you pick from hundreds of free designs, chosen by theme or its collection of artists, charities and brands based around the world. It also allows you to integrate print, social networking features, and customised event Web pages, so you don't have to choose a specific channel for sending invites (e-mail, Facebook, SMS). A lot of content is available for free, but enthusiasts can pay to upgrade to Pinng Plus.
What's for supper?
If you're tired of cooking up the same predictable Christmas fare, or aren't prepared to page through piles of gigantic recipe books, mobile recipe apps offer a nifty alternative. There are countless foodie apps and sites out there, which will make festive menu planning a breeze.
Free iPhone app, Cook's Illustrated, for example, contains recipes with step-by-step instructions, including videos and photos, and a kitchen timer alert function. It also features practical advice on supermarket ingredients (virgin or extra virgin olive oil?) and shopping list options. Non-subscribers only get access to 50 recipes, but these are 'all-time favourites' that have been put through their paces, so they're more likely to be flop-proof.
Then there's popular food site Epicurious, which is now available on Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone. It offers more than 30 000 recipes from publications like Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Self, and well-known chefs and cookbooks. All recipes are searchable via category or text, and you can save and share recipes and create ingredient shopping lists. In 'step-by-step kitchen mode' the screen shows only what you need for the next step, and you also get access to thousands of recipe reviews and ratings from Epicurious.com members.
Want to outsource the cooking experience altogether using mobile help? Simply browse Woolworths' online catalogue for Christmas goodies and order them, knowing your food will be delivered cooked and prepared, so all you have to do is arrange it artfully on serving platters. You are on holiday, after all.
Alternatively, visit Chef Direct and order from its Christmas menu, if store-ordered dishes seem too ordinary or recognisable. Choose from traditional favourites like roast turkey and deboned gammon, roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables, and Christmas pudding and mince pies.
Finally, if you do want to cook up a storm for Christmas, What's for dinner has a useful planning outline (one week before, three days before, on the day), and locally relevant recipes you can receive on your phone. SA food blog Scrumptious shares tips for a perfect turkey, a range of festive recipes from peppery stuffing to spicy plum sauce, and even ideas for SA-inspired table settings.
A friend recently burnt a turkey three times (different turkeys, thankfully) in the days spent preparing for a dinner, because the recipe said to roast the bird at 250 degrees and they didn't realise it meant Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Conversion apps can mean the difference between tender and toasted, so here are a few you can download in the time it takes to get the measuring bowls out: Kitchen Calculator for the iPhone helps divide or double recipes, converts volumes, temperatures, weights and other cooking measurements, and supports fractions as well as decimals. The Android Convert Me app is more general, but does convert over 100 units of measurement, including volume, mass, and temperature, and it's free. With these digital kitchen tools, your kitchen (and sanity) have a much better chance of staying intact.
Successful Christmas dinners don't have to come with a build-up of stress and frantic running around. Kick back and spend a few minutes browsing these services on your phone, and you'll have a stocking-full of apps to keep you as cheery and chilled as the general festive atmosphere. Happy holidays!
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