Make the ultimate holiday music and movie playlist for families

Ah, the holidays: so many reasons to get the family together, which means so many people to entertain, and so many streaming things. While we’ve never had more movies, TV and music at our fingertips, figuring out what to stream can be as hard as figuring out when to put the turkey in the oven.

Get ahead of the inevitable “What do we want to watch?” with a few tips to help you choose what to stream over the holidays.

Make a kid-friendly holiday movie playlist.

Movie streaming apps let you create and share a movie playlist. But if the kids are in command of the screen, turn on the “kids only” content feature in your movie streaming service. For example, when you get the Disney Bundle with myPlan, select a Junior Mode that selects only from kid-friendly movies.

• Open the Disney+ app and select Profile.
• Tap (+) Add Profile.
• Pick a character icon for your profile.
• Enter a profile name, like “Holidays, 2023.”
• Enable Junior Mode by toggling the setting to the right of the screen.

Make a holiday music playlist with a little help from AI.

Streaming music apps offer endless hours of holiday songs you know and love, and it can help you discover new favorites. But sometimes the algorithm in those music apps keeps turning up the same songs. New apps like PlaylistAI use AI to find new music inspired by your favorite holiday movie, genre, photo or TikTok video.

• Find an AI playlist app, like PlaylistAI, and make sure it connects with your music streaming app.
• Apps like PlaylistAI then prompt you to create your own list using an AI descriptor, the title of your favorite movie or even a photo.
• The new playlist is automatically added to your account.

Stream the holiday photos and share them with family who can’t be there.

You can create a shared photo album on any Apple device and invite friends and family to add photos and videos. Google Photos is another great option, and you can beam the shared album to a screen via a Google Home device.

“If I put a particular Google Photos album on my Google Home device,” like a Google Nest Hub Max, “those photos will be automatically downloaded to my screen and cycle through, so it’s like a constantly updating picture frame,” says Sarah Kimmel, founder of the consulting firm Family Tech Biz and an IT specialist with 25 years of experience. You can also share the Google Photo album with a family member who’s not there, and they can add it to their device too.

“One of my favorite gifts for parents is to give them a Google Home device and add them to a shared album,” Kimmel says, “so they can continually get new pictures of the family without having to do a thing.” 

• Create a shared album on your Apple device.
• Make a photo album in Google Photos.
• Share photo album to your Google Smart Display.

Don’t forget to rate and review.

Those thumbs-up and thumbs-down prompts in the corner of the screen are meant to help you.

“The more information that you feed any of these platforms, the better and more personalized the algorithm is going to be,” says Kimmel, so don’t be shy about telling a streaming service what you really thought of the holiday song or show it just suggested. “If you leave an honest rating, you’re feeding the algorithm information about what you like and dislike, and you’re going to get better recommendations,” says Kimmel, and have a better time streaming your way through the holidays.

With myPlan, you can save on music and streaming costs with Perks from Verizon.