How to enjoy Christmas with your family using technology

Christmas can be stressful, cooped up in a house with a number of your closest family members. These gadget ideas can help you take that crucial break to retain your sanity.

Christmas is meant to be a time of sharing, caring and food, but it can be quite fraught and stressful a couple of days in. Technology can help you take a break so you don’t end up hating your lovely family.

Smartphone games

FacebookTwitterPinterest Probably best not to play anything quite so infuriating as Flappy Bird. Photograph: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images

The humble smartphone is the first defence against familial friction.

We’ve all seen it, and all done it, but simply having a distracting, potentially mind-numbing game on your phone can provide that moment of relief that’s needed every now and again. You might look rude staring at your phone for five minutes while everyone bleats around you, but it’s better than blowing your top and having a row.

Try Threes, Alphabear or Monument Valley. Nothing too frustrating.

Portable games console

FacebookTwitterPinterest Mario, Zelda, Pokemon or even Tetris could be a good distraction for particularly tense moments. Photograph: Nintendo

It’s an oldie but a goodie. Since the original Game Boy launched in 1989, people have been ignoring others by staring at a small screen connected to a controller.

In 2015 that means the Nintendo 3DS or the PS Vita. Potentially slightly more involving than a smartphone game and if you can get someone to buy you a game you can even make it a polite activity: “Oh, thank you so much, I must try it right now and ignore you for four hours.”

Either the latest Pokémon game for the 3DS or the latest Uncharted game for the PS Vita are a good start.
Noise-cancelling headphones

FacebookTwitterPinterest Some headphones can block out your creepy uncle or nagging kids, if only for a few minutes. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose for the Observer

The cacophony of boisterous fun can get a bit much sometimes. A good set of noise-cancelling or strong sound-isolating headphones can help give you a break from the din.

Active noise-cancelling headphones blast your ears with the inverse sound waves of the noise outside the headphones, cancelling out the sounds before they hit your eardrums.

Isolating headphones simply block out the noise, as would an ear plug or ear defender.

The most effective noise cancelling headphones available right now are the Bose QC 25, but there are many others available. Decent sound isolating in-ear headphones can be bought for upwards of £30.
Six of the best noise-cancelling headphones to silence the commute

Virtual reality

FacebookTwitterPinterest If anyone complains, tell them to blame Boris Johnson for setting a bad example. Photograph: Dan Balilty/AP

Escapism doesn’t get much more comprehensive than virtual reality. A set of VR goggles can transport you to another world, or into a cinema on your face, without you having to leave your sofa.

Strap a Gear VR to your face – high-end, recent Samsung smartphone required – put on a pair of headphones and escape. You can even do it in the same room as everyone else so you appear to be being sociable.

If you don’t want to buy anything as expensive as a £100 accessory for your smartphone, then Google’s Cardboard, which you can make yourself, is a good option. You’ll need some lenses, a smartphone, and some cardboard.
Drone

FacebookTwitterPinterest Drones are the perfect excuse to get away from family members. Photograph: Mark Passmore/Apex for the Observer

If you really must leave the house and get away from your family a drone can help.

UK legislation dictates that drones cannot be flown within 50 metres of a building or a person or within 150 metres of a built-up area. Which means you have the perfect excuse to travel quite some distance from everyone else.

Drones start at around £50 for a decent small one, but scale all the way up into the thousands depending on capability. For a halfway house, the Parrot Bebop is a good toy that can also do camera work.

And if all else fails, you can always read the Guardian for news and views on mobile, tablet or web – reject your family and get the whole picture.