The key to holiday fun: save more, stress less

Ready to kick off the holiday season? Here’s a quick recipe for a fun and stress-free holiday season:

Ingredients:

• A seemingly endless to-do list of holiday chores you’d like to streamline
• A budget you need to live within
• The Palm Beta App Catalog on your Palm Pre or Palm Pixi

Step 1: Cue up the holiday ambiance with your favorite “AccuHolidays” channel on the AccuRadio app. (The “Chestnuts Roasting” channel, for example, plays nothing but various renditions of “The Christmas Song.” Not your taste? Try the all “Let It Snow! Snow! Snow!” channel....Seriously, though, the “Holiday Jazz” channel rocks -- as does the “Holiday Rock” channel.)

Step 2: If you’re making a list, no need to be checking it twice if you use GiftJammer to manage everything from sizes and colors to prices and website links. GiftJammer will even remind you when those special dates are coming up.

Step 3: My Mall Shopping offers the convenience of those airline catalog anthologies (but without the hassles of having to go through security and pay extra to check your luggage).

Step 4: Dealert monitors your favorite deal-tracking sites, and makes it easy to  share the latest bargain news with everyone in your network.

Step 5: If holiday hubbub leaves you at a loss for words, Free Greeting Card Messages can help you add a little eloquence to your gift-giving.

Step 6: You’ve figured out the perfect gifts, found where you can get them, nabbed them at a great price -- now you just need to make sure they get to their destinations on time.  That’s where Pack 'n' Track comes in, helping you keep tabs on FedEx, UPS, USPS, and DHL.

And now, a word from our sponsor: Starting Thanksgiving Day, you’ll get $30 off all orders of $99 or more at store.palm.com, along with free shipping! (And BTW, here’s one more recipe tip for can’t-miss holiday success.)

Jon Zilber