There was a time when Christmas entertainment consisted of endless games of Monopoly, food coma-fuelled games of charades followed by falling asleep in front of Morcambe and Wise.
Now we can all stare at our phones and iPads instead! Nothing says Christmas cheer quite like staring into a shiny black rectangle and tip-tapping on a glass screen.
The Snowman and the Snowdog
This lovely and lulling game is best described as ‘gentle’. You and your Snowdog friend join The Snowman on a flying journey over the streets of Hastings and London before heading to the North Pole. There are missions to complete, like collecting slices of cake or Christmas tree angels. Flight is sustained by tapping on snowflakes – GTA Vice City it isn’t. The animation is cosy, the music will sweep you along and you’ll soon find yourself feeling calm and Christmassy.
Available on App Store and Google Play
Icon Pop Quiz
Games like this dispel any myths about apps being antisocial. It is the type of game that the entire family will be able to join in with and end up utterly addicted. You are presented with sets of stylised images of pop cultural icons and have to guess their identity. The idea is similar to the logo game that caused much hysteria earlier this year. Icon Pop Quiz is far prettier to look at and it feels like a lot of thought has gone into app design and artwork. You can choose from ‘Famous People’, ‘TV and Film’ or ‘Characters’. There is also a Christmas pack that can be accessed by sharing the app on Facebook or Twitter.
Available on App Store and Google Play
Toca Hair Salon Christmas Gift
This is meant for kids, but giving Father Christmas a bright yellow beard and skinhead is fun for all the family! You play barber to either the jolly red suited fellow or a Christmas tree (?). You can comb, trim and blow-dry their hair/branches into all sorts of silly styles, before adorning their coiffure with all sorts of bows and baubles. The app is a little underdeveloped with some features being far from subtle or precise. Then again, subtlety and precision don’t matter hugely when you are backcombing a Christmas tree. Toca’s musical app, Toca Band is also well worth downloading to entertain kids, although you might need to invest in earplugs...
Available on App Store
Vintique
With Instagram now THE APP OF ALL EVIL, it is high time to explore some new vintage photo apps. Vintique has loads of powerful filters as well as pretty frames and Polaroid-style templates. Text can be added to images, with plenty of fonts and colours to choose from. It is perfect for playing around with snaps of Christmas decorations and food, you could even create your own festive greeting card. Images are easy to share to email, Facebook and Twitter but the app lacks the community feel.
Available on App Store