How to use AI to make your holidays easier & stress-free

by Burton Kelso, The Tech Expert

Are you all set for the upcoming holidays or are you like me? Slowed down by your day-to-day activities as well as all the time and effort it takes to make this season of light fun and festive for everyone? Much like any personal or professional project you undertake, you can get assistance from Generative AI.

All AI wants to do for Thanksgiving, the Holidays, and Christmas is to help you. From suggesting travel destinations, creating delicious meals, and helping us come up with unique gifting ideas, Generative AI is there to hold your hand. Be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, Festivus, New Year, or whatever holiday you celebrate, let AI enhance your festive season and free you some time to actually enjoy these festivals with your family and loved ones.

Here's what you need to know.

How is AI helpful for the holidays? AI has been around for years. Tools like Siri, Alexa, and Google use Conversational AI which allows you to look for items with your voice. In recent years, Generative AI is technology has put the power of AI in your hands. These tools allow you to generate content like text, images, music, videos, and ideas by analyzing vast datasets and by scraping data.

You may already be familiar with some of the popular AI tools such as ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, Gemini, and Meta.AI. These ChatBots learn from the data they’re trained on and can generate outputs that mimic human creativity. This makes them perfect for assisting humans in creative tasks such as prepping for the festive season. These platforms can be not just for business but for all social aspects of your life. If you're going to thrive and survive and AI world, you need to find ways to incorporate in into all aspects of your life.

What can AI help you with this holiday season? So, what can generative AI do to make your festive season more enjoyable? Well, pretty much everything you ask it. Think of AI as personal virtual elves! They are at your service, to help you with all your festive needs. Here are the ways AI can help you make the best of this festive season!

Make Travel Plans During the Holidays. 
Planning to visit friends and family this holiday season? Traveling can be stressful, but AI can simplify it. Generative AI can create customized itineraries based on your preferences, like sightseeing spots, dining, and activities. Try this prompt: I need you to act as my travel agent. Can you plan out a 4 day family trip for 2 teenage kids, myself and my wife to travel to Chicago for Christmas. We're driving. We need the best route, places to stay downtown, and places to see and eat.

The more details you add such as travel dates, interests, food choices, etc. the more detailed the itineraries will be. These GenAI tools can create travel routes, suggest flights, hotels, and dining options, and also guide local commutes. Some of them can even give you travel tips based on the weather and who you’re traveling with.

Last-minute gift ideas. 
Depending on the personality and interest, finding gifts can either be extremely easy or the most difficult part of the holidays. Luckily, AI can help with that.
Both Google and Microsoft’s Bing have created AI-generated gift idea searches that can help find gifts for the most difficult member of the family or a hard-to-buy friend. Plus, Google Shopping uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the online shopping experience by offering personalized search results, virtual try-on and feeds that are tuned into what you normally shop for. 

If you want help from a Generative ChatBot, try this prompt "Hey, I need you to act as a professional shopper. I'm shopping for my wife who has everything and rushes out to purchase new items. Can you give 3 unique gift ideas that will blow her mind. They don't have to be physical gifts."

Writing Santa letters. 
Writing letters to Santa is a common thing for kids to tell the jolly man what they want for Christmas. If you're struggling to get into the mindset of Santa, AI can help. 

Try the following AI Prompt: "I need you to act as if you are Santa Claus. I need to create a letter to my 5 year child named Suzi who is pretty much a good kid during the year. I need you to let her know you'll be visiting Christmas Eve and let her know you're bringing gifts, specially that Mini BarbieLand DreamHouse & Vehicle Play Set".

Grocery lists. 
Coming up with a grocery list may seem like an easy thing to do. It is just another thing that must be done in a long list of holiday chores or preparations for family and good times. It's time you turn to AI this holiday to help. Did you know you can upload a photo of your fridge or food and spice items in your home to AI to have it analyze the items in the photos to help you create a grocery list? Just tell it what you're making and AI will do the rest. 

Try this prompt: "I need to create a shopping list based on the ingredients I currently have and the meals I want to prepare. Here are the ingredients I have: Please analyze these ingredients and identify what additional items I need to buy to complete these meals."

Holiday Special Recipes 
AI shines in the kitchen too. Platforms like ChatGPT, RecipeGPT, Mr. Cook, and DishGen can suggest meal plans and recipes for festive dishes based on the ingredients you have or dietary restrictions. For instance, if you’re hosting a dinner, simply input the type of dishes you want (e.g., vegan sweets), and these tools will provide personalized recipe suggestions and cooking instructions. AI can also save you from the fuss of last-minute grocery runs by recommending substitutions if you’re missing an ingredient. 

Try this prompt: "I need you to act as my personal chef. Can you come up with a new twist for turkey for my thanksgiving dinner?"

Fun Games and Festive Activities. 
You could break out the old board games or you can turn to AI. Party games and activities can be just as important as the food or music. AI can help you plan a fun-filled festival. AI can help create custom quizzes, scavenger hunts, or trivia games based on your theme. It can also generate theme-based coloring pages and activity sheets for the kids.

Hopefully, this will give you tips about using AI to help you have a fun and stress-free holiday season. If you have any questions, please reach out. I'm always available.

Want to ask me a tech question? Send it to [email protected]. I love technology. I've read all of the manuals and I'm serious about making technology fun and easy to use for everyone.