One holiday tradition is relaxation: seeing houses decked out in decorations and lights. The hard part is finding the best displays in your area. Well, guess what? There’s an app for that.
Mapping out the holiday cheer
Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a social media platform designed for neighborhoods. You sign up and communicate with others in your area. Users can post about products and services, bulletins, local crimes, lost items, real estate and more.
Nextdoor teamed up with Home Depot to roll out an annual Cheer Map. It’s a local interactive map that helps you find the best holiday lights and decorations in your town. You can even mark your home as decorated to participate. Anyone can use these spots to map out a custom holiday sightseeing tour.
The app also shows nearby Nearby Home Depot locations where you can scoop up decorations, including live trees and inflatables. The map features a seasonal how-to guide to inspire décor and gift ideas.
Want more holiday stats? A survey of adults in the U.S. conducted on behalf of Nextdoor and Home Depot found that:
83% of people decorating this year plan on keeping their decorations up throughout December, with 42% not taking down their décor immediately after the New Year.
54% don’t mind if neighbors leave their outdoor holiday decorations up past January 1.
17% prefer all-white holiday lights over multi-colored holiday lights.
49% plan to explore their neighborhood to enjoy holiday displays.
Quick tip: Transform your iPhone into a white noise machine
With every new iOS, Apple introduces more features, tools and security updates. Developers are constantly pushing the envelope to compete with each other, and one way to keep users excited is to put on a show.
Apple’s 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference took place recently. Highlights of the keynote are new operating systems for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. With iOS 16, you’ll finally be able to unsend text messages! Tap or click here to check out our roundup.
Mother’s Day is around the corner. Today, I’ve hand-selected some gifts for the mom who loves relaxation, meditation and treating herself — or the mom who never makes time for it!
A mulberry silk pillowcase will keep her hair shiny and skin crease-free, plus it feels great (15% off!).
Not shocked: Google’s AI-generated search results are dishing out some dangerous nonsense. When asked about “cheese not sticking to pizza,” the AI suggested adding glue to the sauce. It also responded to “health benefits of tobacco for tweens” with increased alertness, euphoria and relaxation. Uh‑oh.
A soothing color-by-number game that teaches Bible truths
We found a free app that provides stress relief and encourages creativity. It’s perfect for the whole family and, it has a biblical theme. It’s simple, fun, and, most of all, relaxing.
Sleep sounds and white noise for better sleep, meditation and baby relaxation
The other day, I found myself in the backyard relaxing in the hammock. It wasn’t too hot outside, the shade perfectly covered my face and I was enjoying a great e-book.
I thought I would just close my eyes for a second, but I ended up taking a longer nap than I bargained for. There’s just something so wonderful about that sweet spot of being comfortable and listening to soothing background noises that lull you to sleep.
