科技带动圣诞精神

Technology to Bring Out the Christmas Spirit 科技带动圣诞精神

Christmas is December 25. Many people celebrate the holiday around the world with special food, music and gift exchanges.

But the holiday can also be very busy and difficult. Sometimes it is hard to get into the spirit of Christmas. What can you do?

Turn to tech!

Apps, websites, videos, music and more can help create a festive¹ mood and spread the cheer!

RACK - Random² Acts of Christmas Kindness

Nothing spreads good cheer better than helping³ others. Start a holiday tradition with Random Acts of Christmas Kindness, or RACK. RACKing does not have to be costly⁴; the best gifts are often those that take the most thought and no money at all.

For inspiration, check out ?Pinterest RACK boards and RACK pins.

This RACK Pinterest board has pins including RACKS for the elderly, kids and more.

Also check out RACK webpages to get ideas for helping others. Baton⁵ RougeMoms.com has one.

Another, the Still Being Molly website, has a free RACK Advent⁶ calendar to download. The calendar is filled with ideas to spread cheer: RACK Advent Calendar 2016.

And, the Kiddie Matters website has 30 ideas for random acts of kindness you can do with children.

Virtual Tour of Santa’s House

Real estate website Zillow has a virtual tour of Santa's house at the North Pole. Head to Santa's House on Zillow and click on the video to see where Santa lives.

The page includes information that can be found on Zillow pages about real houses, like age and number of rooms. You can also look at photos of the inside. Santa's house is not for sale, but you can still take the tour!

Holiday Music

Holiday music can get you in a jolly spirit. The Christmas Radio app can help you find seasonal⁷ songs.

You can choose tunes⁸ from more than 100 Internet radio stations and add favorites to your Spotify playlists. The app also lets you choose favorite themes and background colors. Fall asleep to Christmas music with the sleep timer.

Music genres¹⁰ include Christmas Pop, Rock, Classical, Instrumental, Jazz and Smooth. The app is free with in-app purchases available.

Christmas Radio

Christmas Radio is available in the Google Play store.

The World Radio Stations Christmas iPhone and iPad App is a free app that broadcasts in ten languages from 97 radio stations around the world. Search for music by language or by genre⁹, such as jazz, classical or music for children.

World Radio Stations Christmas is available in the iTunes App Store.

Spotify

Spotify is filled with Christmas playlists. Search for "Christmas music" to find playlists or create your own.

Here is a Christmas music Spotify playlist to get you started:

PNP Santa Video

Each year the PNP website lets users create a free video with their gift wish lists for Santa. The videos are fun for children and adults. They can include the name of the person, the gift they want, photos, and whether they have been naughty or nice.

Head to the PNP website to create a Santa video or download the PNP Santa app to create a video from a phone or tablet.

To create the video, add a photo of yourself or someone else. Then add information about what you or they would like as a Christmas present. PNP will use it to create a personal video for free in just about one minute.

After you create a video you can share it with others via Facebook and email.

Christmas Facebook Stickers

Fans of Christmas and Facebook stickers will enjoy adding Christmas stickers to their Facebook messages. Add stickers such as Charlie Brown Christmas to messages you send on the Facebook website or in the Messenger app.

Use the free stickers in Facebook messages to help your friends find the holiday spirit themselves!

Words in This Story

spirit - n. the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power

festive - adj. cheerful and exciting :suited to a celebration or holiday

mood - n. the way someone feels : a person's emotional state

Advent - n. the period of time beginning four Sundays before Christmas?

virtual - adj. existing or occurring on computers or on the Internet

jolly - adj. full of happiness and joy : happy and cheerful

theme - n. the particular subject or idea on which the style of something is based

genre - n. a particular type or category of literature or art

broadcast - v. to send out (signals, programs, etc.) by radio or television

naughty - adj. behaving badly — used especially to describe a child who does not behave properly or obey a parent, teacher, etc.

1 festive   

adj.欢宴的，节日的

参考例句：

• It was Christmas and everyone was in festive mood.当时是圣诞节，每个人都沉浸在节日的欢乐中。
• We all wore festive costumes to the ball.我们都穿着节日的盛装前去参加舞会。

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

6 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

7 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

8 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

10 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译