As Christmas approaches, technology can add some extra sparkle to the season, whether at home, on long flights, or during road trips. These festive apps blend fun with learning, helping kids feel the magic of the holidays while staying entertained. Here’s a roundup of the best family-friendly Christmas apps, listed alphabetically. Our list appears in alphabetical order not in order of ranking.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Share animated stickers of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang with friends and family.
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!”
Help Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang as they struggle to find the true meaning of Christmas. Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, narrates the rebirth of the 1965 animated classic as an interactive storybook complete with original dialogue, digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your Apple device.
Play Schroeder’s piano, finger paint with the gang, and go carolling with the Peanuts choir. Participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest to unlock decorations for your very own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With something to discover on every page, this is one interactive Peanuts adventure you won’t want to miss this holiday season!!
A Message From Santa!
Create personalized Santa videos, receive simulated phone calls, send texts to Santa, and leave voicemails with kids’ wish lists. A great tool to encourage good behaviour and add to the excitement.
Catch Santa AR
The revolutionary AR app that the world has never seen before is here this Christmas!
For the first time ever you can summon Virtual Santa Claus to your living room and catch him leaving gifts on video.
Catch Santa AR features the world’s first ever video tool to capture Virtual Santa Claus in Augmented Reality. Instead of inserting motionless stickers into your photos, summon the real moving Santa Claus and capture him leaving gifts under your tree on video. It looks so real you won’t believe your eyes!
Christmas Countdown (2025)
A peaceful, ad-free countdown app with music, snowfall, daily advent photos, and premium extras like widgets and more backgrounds. Count down the days until Christmas with a fun snowy countdown. Choose from a selection of beautiful backgrounds, featuring Santa and his reindeer, many Christmas trees, and even a snowman! Enjoy classic Christmas music including Deck the Halls and We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Christmas RADIO
Streams over 180 Christmas music stations, from classics to kids’ favourites. Beautiful as a soundtrack or even as holiday decor when displayed on an iPad.
Some of this year’s more popular stations include: Mistletoe, Christmas Carols Radio and Kristmas Kountry. There’s also North Pole Radio, which broadcasts directly from the North Pole – a detail that is sure to delight even the most skeptical of Santa-doubting kids; and probably more than a few adults, too.
More than any other time of year, the holidays are defined by the music that celebrates this season, and that’s why Christmas Radio is so massively popular around the world. At no cost, and conveniently via WiFi and cellular networks , you can instantly connect to the holiday music they love, whether that’s rockin’ Christmas hits, old standards, or whatever else you prefer.
Quite simply, Christmas Radio is holiday music on demand, and it’s completely free. And on top of all of that, the iPad app adds a touch of beautiful holiday décor when it streams music using the Airplay and stands near a fireplace, on a mantelpiece, on top of a table, or even nestled near the Christmas tree!
Elf Cam – Santa’s elf tracke
Create your own Elf with 100s of outfits, more animations, and loads of fun in this year’s merriest holiday app!
It’s that time of year when Santa’s elves visit your home checking off their naughty or nice list. Like track Santa, you can now track elves. This year you’ll be ready to catch them on camera using Elf Cam. Your kids will scream at the magical site of seeing their elf running around their own home.
Enjoy Elf Cam, the original AR Elf camera app.
WATCH YOUR ELF COME TO LIFE
Choose your elf, pick a route and let your Elf run wild around your home. Catch it on camera and watch the delight of your children when you show them the magic.
ElfYourself
The most popular app of the Holiday Season 15 years running is back with great new dances and features!
This holiday tradition lets you “Elf Yourself” and star in dozens of personalized videos with your face on dancing elves. Add up to 5 faces, then select a dance and the app automatically creates your video! Share your dancing skills on social media or message a super fun holiday greeting to your friends and family. It’s as easy as pie!
ElfYourself is FREE to download and enjoy, some dances are free, but most require purchase to unlock. You can purchase dances individually or get our Season Pass to access all content and remove ads for 12 months!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
An interactive Dr. Seuss storybook filled with hidden stars, vocabulary tools, narration options, and 28 mini-games like puzzles and memory match.
FEATURES
- Tap and drag to find playful surprises throughout the book
- Find hidden stars on every page to reveal fun activities
- Read along with highlighting narration, read it yourself, or enjoy auto play
- Explore new vocabulary by tapping words and pictures
- Track minutes spent reading, pages read, and more in the Parents section
ACTIVITIES
- Play seven different mini-games like Memory Match, Jigsaw Puzzle, Word Search, Sequence, and more!
- Find all 28 unique games hidden throughout the book
- Enjoy activities again and again, directly from the main menu
- Try to beat your high score and best time
NORAD Tracks Santa
A long-time favourite for following Santa’s global Christmas Eve journey. Includes games, stories, and an official countdown.
Punchbowl: Invitations & Cards
Design and send digital invites and e-cards featuring beloved kids’ characters like Frozen, Marvel, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and more. Track RSVPs, send video messages, and manage guest lists easily.
FIND THE PERFECT INVITATION:
- Thousands of beautiful online invitations
- Characters Kids Love’ collection features hundreds of beloved, iconic characters from Disney, Hasbro, Marvel, Mattel, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street & Universal
- Handmade Art’ invite collection features designs created with artistic techniques
- Popular categories include Birthdays, Baby Showers, Bridal Showers, Graduation, Weddings, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year’s
PERSONALIZE & SEND INVITES ON THE GO
- Best invitation maker for all your celebrations
- Touch-friendly controls make it simple to input party details
- Add a photo to select designs directly from your Camera Roll
- Quickly build Guest Lists with convenient import options
- Send party invitations online by email or text message
MANAGE ONLINE INVITATIONS WITH RSVP:
- Track RSVPs in real time from the app on iPhone or iPad
- Add more guests, follow-up with anyone who hasn’t responded
- Chat with guests one-on-one or broadcast announcements to your entire list
- Add Potluck List, Poll, Co-Host & more
RSVP TO INVITATIONS:
- Respond to email invitations or text invitations as a guest
- View the guest list, get directions, see To-Do Items from the host
- Save all invites you receive in one place
DELIVER GREETING CARDS BY TEXT OR EMAIL:
- Gorgeous free ecards with the look and feel of a traditional paper greeting card
- Popular categories include Birthday, Thank You, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day & Christmas
- Add a heartfelt video message to any card
- Upload a photo to select designs & personalize your message with our card maker
- Send cards by email or text instantly, or schedule for delivery later
PNP Portable North Pole
The world-famous app for highly personalized Santa videos and calls. Includes a free trial, creative activities, bedtime stories, and ways to capture children’s reactions.
Portable North Pole brings the magic of Christmas to the palm of your hand. As the #1 Santa app globally, parents and guardians can watch their loved ones’ faces light up with one-of-a-kind messages from Santa Claus himself, and record their priceless reaction with the Reaction Recorder!
Unlike many other Santa apps, Portable North Pole offers a free trial experience, without advertising! Discover our four new free trial videos, including a video just for kids and a video just for grown-ups with the premium version, an all-new birthday video, and more!
Santa’s Bag
Santa’s Bag has been recommended by The New York Times, US News & World Report, Consumer Reports, USA Today, Forbes Magazine, Fox News, Parents Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, PC Magazine, NBC News, Buzzfeed.com, and The Huffington Post, among others.
Revolutionize your Christmas shopping experience! Santa’s Bag is a fun and easy-to-use app to help you manage your Christmas gift recipients, planning, shopping, and budgets. Each detail of the app is carefully designed to make sure you don’t forget anyone or anything. Christmas shopping has never been easier or more fun!
Santa Tracker – Track Santa
A simple and kid-friendly Santa tracking tool with a “Find My House” feature, rooftop countdown, and updates about what Santa is doing right now.
Scout Elf® Ideas
Scout Elves always match the unique personalities of their families! Some are playful and creative, while others are sporty and adventurous. This app offers fun daily photos to inspire every Scout Elf during the Christmas season.
Discover fun ideas for spending time with your family along with pictures of Scout Elves that come with materials and instructions. From quick and easy ideas to creative and complex ones, this app has them all! You can find links to printable crafts and Scout Elf clothes to enhance certain designs.
Filter to find tons of different ideas for your Scout Elf and get special daily reminder alerts from the North Pole. Find fun ideas for the Scout Elves and get into the holiday spirit with The Elf on the Shelf® Ideas!
Speak to Santa™ – Christmas Call
Video Call Santa! Voice Call Santa! Message Santa! Track Santa! The only Santa Video Call app with varied and customizable conversation options! Santa actually knows all about you (12 facts including your name)! On Christmas Eve you can even talk to Santa while he’s on his sleigh!
Welcome to North Pole Command Center! Here at the North Pole Science Department, our Engineers are always looking for ways to modernise Christmas, their latest creation is this hi-tech Santa Tracking/ Santa Calling App!
VIDEO CALL SANTA – For the first time ever, you can now Video Call Santa! This is not a simple video recording of Santa, this is a dynamic, varied, and realistic simulated call. Santa knows your name, he knows things like your favourite colour, your favourite sport and tons more. He also knows when you’ve been naughty or nice, and he’s not afraid to bring it up during the call! The call can even be recorded to kept forever or shared!
