The Best Holiday Apps For Your Smartphone

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #TheGiftOfData #CollectiveBias

Streaming football games when I'm riding in the car. Checking my fantasy football score (one hundred and fifty seven times a day). Scrolling Pinterest aimlessly for hours. Streaming holiday music and singing at uncomfortable volumes for all to hear. Watching youtube clips of dogs doing funny things. Showing everyone I encounter the NFL spoof, "Bad Lip Reading." 

Wait, have you seen bad lip reading yet?! There are several editions, including this one too. I can't watch Dez play anymore without thinking, "SOMEONE BRING ME MY FUNYUNS."

See, I use a lot of data on what some might consider to be "silly" things. I personally view it as a good investment of my time. Lucky for me, and every other smartphone owner in the American population, Walmart Family Mobile is now offering their Unlimited Talk, Text & Data service plan for $39.88 a month (for the first line), which now includes up to 5GB of 4G LTE data.

I've gotten to test out Walmart Family Mobile's service and phones in the past, and was excited to get to use the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime ($149) smartphone this holiday season.... you know, so I can now watch even more hilarious videos of cats getting spooked!

Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to http://cbi.as/186mm or your local Walmart for current pricing.

Ok ok, so say you didn't want to sit around and watch Buzzfeed Food videos where they make delicious, must-have dishes like this Pizza dip that looks so good I could cry... what would you use that extra data on this holiday season? Have no fear, I have some suggestions!

For Tunes: 

Spotify's Turkey Timer

Time your turkey to Spotify's freshly baked playlist. Turn up the temperature, then turn up the volume.

Step One: Select Turkey Weight

Step Two: Select Genre

Step Three: Cook to tunes that will run the exact length of your turkey cook time! 

For Family Gaming: 

Bloop

This game is kind of like twister for your fingers, and will be great for the family on Christmas Eve. Bloop is a fast, frantic touch game for Android. Two, three, or four players race to tap the most tiles...at the same time! Easy at first, but soon the tiles shrink. Hands collide. Fingers cross. Fireworks!

Heads Up

If you've never played Ellen's smartphone game with friends or family, you're majorly missing out. Anytime we have a party, someone always ends up requesting Heads Up.  From naming celebrities, to singing, to silly accents -- guess the word on the card that’s on your head from your friends’ clues before the timer runs out! You can purchase extra decks for just 99 cents, so you never run out of clues.

Reverse Charades
Reverse Charades is a hilarious twist on a classic stand-by (where one person acts out words for the team to guess-boring)! With the Reverse Charades app, the entire team chooses 30, 60 or 90 second rounds to act out as many words as one person can guess

For Cooking and Entertaining: 

Yummly

Search recipes (including cocktails!) and easily make grocery lists from those recipes. Featured on the Today Show, Yummly matches over 1 million recipes to your cooking lifestyle’s nutrition, diet, food allergies, and favorite cuisines. Kind of like Pinterest, only much more targeted!

Vivino Wine Scanner

Take a photo of any wine label to find pricing, ratings, reviews, food paring suggestions and recommendations. Get to know any wine within seconds just by scanning the label.

For Fun: 

Elf Yourself

The annual holiday tradition allows you to “elf” yourself and become the star of a personalized video featuring your photos on holiday dancing elves. Simply upload up to five photos of you, your friends, family and more from your camera roll or Facebook. Select a dance theme, and the app will generate a custom ElfYourself video that you can share via email or post on Facebook.

Santa Tracker
Man what I would have done to have this when I was a kid. Santa tracker, as the name suggests, allows you to find out exactly where santa is at any point in the night on Christmas Eve. You can also play games with elves in jetpacks, rolling gumballs, sleighs powered by rockets and Google Cardboard. Once the 24th arrives, follow Santa in his journey around the world.  

For Travel: 

Turo

Rent a car from an actual person rather than an agency, and know exactly what type of car you're going to get. Across the country or across town, travelers choose from a unique selection of nearby cars, while car owners earn extra money and help fuel the adventures of travelers they meet along the way. Whether it’s an F-150 truck to help out on moving day, a Tesla for a luxurious weekend away, or a classic VW bus for a picture-perfect road trip, travelers rent the car, and own the adventure.

Audible

I'm an Audible addict. I'm not one to sit down and read a book cover to cover, but with I use all the free time I have sitting in traffic to read the country's best selling novels. I just started Pretty Girls, and I think I'm about to explode with sadness every time I have to get out of the car. 

Bring Fido
Looking for a pet-friendly hotel? How about an awesome dog park, trail or beach? BringFido.com is the world's leading pet travel website and the #1 trusted resource for dog owners looking for the lowdown on the best hotels, attractions, and restaurants that welcome pets.

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Walmart Family Mobile can be found in-store, as shown in the photo below. To learn more about WFM and giving #thegiftofdata, be sure to check out their Tumblr page, here!