Filipinos simply love getting together during the holidays! Relatives and friends from near and far make time for Christmas reunions and parties, excited to see and chat with everyone and catch up on all the latest family and barkada news, gossips and intrigues.
But organizing these Christmas get-togethers could entail monumental stress and hassle. Available function rooms in nice hotels and restaurants are hard to come by. Braving the notorious Metro traffic could prove to be a Herculean feat. Cab fares can cost you an arm and a leg. Fighting for that one last available parking slot could be energy-draining. The long queues could take quite a toll on your patience. And the crowd with all its ear-splitting noises could ruin the moment for you.
However, there’s no need to go through all that when there could be an alternative and much better solution. House party! By doing so, your family and friends’ privacy is guaranteed. You get to spend quality time with everyone that matters most to you. The activities could be customized to meet everybody’s requests. By making your home the ultimate entertainment hub, you can all avoid the unnecessary worries and frets that the holiday season brings.
Here are 8 ways on how you can make your (or your friend’s) home your ultimate bonding hub this festive season:
1. To really get in the Yuletide mood, have a Christmas movie marathon with HOOQ. The little ones will surely love “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” Perfect for the tweens and teens are the movies “Elf,” “Christmas With the Kranks” and “Home Alone,” while the adults can chill while feasting on the holiday romantic flicks “The Christmas Card”, “12 Dates of Christmas” and “Holiday Engagement.”
2. You can pick your choice of award-winning original TV series, movies and documentaries from Netflix’s massive library, and with a big bucket of popcorn and brightly-colored Christmas candies, binge-watch them with the whole clan – with no commercial breaks. (You can even stream them straight to your smart TV and other devices!). Get chummy real fast with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock, the resident superheroes, and find yourself finishing an entire season in one sitting.
3. While scouring the ‘Net for recipes of yummy Christmas goodies, the kids can busy themselves giggling over their much-adored Disney characters and their adorable exploits. For this holiday season, Disney has prepared three musical specials for children all over the world: “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration,” “The Disney Parks’ Magical Christmas Celebration” and “Disney Parks Presents: A Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration.”
4. All the boys –and the boys at heart– can satiate their hunger for some NBA basketball action. After the games, they can continue with their banter while pondering the analysts’ assessments, news, stats, standings, inside info, rumors and trivia. The NBA has already released its schedule for the year, and the Christmas Day matchups are really impressive.
5. Everyone can listen to, download and share the coolest music hits and chart-topping songs with Spotify. And while the music is blaring on the background, your family and friends could have a backyard barbecue party, complete with the patties, hotdogs, mallows, corns and sodas that the young and old will surely enjoy.
6. If your family and friends are in the mood for more fun musical activities, though, you can sing along to any song that you love and with any artist that you want, with Sing! Karaoke by Smule. You can also choose to create solo, duet or group videos, or join the karaoke party with the whole world as your audience, or just pick from a huge catalog of top hits and sing your heart out, complete with audio effects.
7. Let the kids embark on epic adventures or learn the art of war strategizing with the latest PSN online games (The much-awaited, years-in-the-making Final Fantasy XV is set to be launched in time for the holidays!). Adults may want to play brain games to keep their brains in tiptop condition. And since they also need to shed off those extra pounds gained with all those Holiday binge-eating, they could use the PlayStation Move Fitness for burning unwanted calories.
8. With Steam, all the gamers among your family and friends may want to form their online clans. And because they can enjoy the benefits of Steam whether they are on a PC, mobile device or even your television, they can take the gaming fun with them wherever they want. Even while participating in actual Christmas party games!
Enjoy all of these activities when you get a home broadband plan from Globe available for only P1,299 a month with speeds of up to 10Mbps. With Globe Broadband’s revolutionary plans, access to the Internet and your favorite TV shows, movies, music, and games make the future of entertainment an omnipresent possibility. With the creation of strong, steadfast connections made available by Globe Broadband, making one’s home the ultimate hub for groundbreaking entertainment now becomes possible.
With speeds of up to 10 Mbps, Globe Broadband’s latest plans not only incorporate fully-upgraded speeds and data allocation to your home connection, it also comes bundled with the most cutting-edge devices for a full on-demand entertainment experience. With Globe Broadband’s exciting new bundles, customers can opt to personalize their broadband plans by choosing devices and applications that would match their personal tastes and preferences.
Availing of these latest devices has also never been this easy! You can pay 50% of the device outright with the balance charged to your bill or through amortized payment for 24 months using your credit card. As an added treat for loyal Globe mobile or broadband subscribers, you can also charge the cost of the device against your postpaid bill for 24 months.
“We at Globe want to make our customers feel like we have a lifetime lifestyle partnership with them. That’s why we create these content-heavy bundled plans to fit your family needs,” says Martha Sazon, Senior Vice President for Broadband Business at Globe.
“The new Globe Broadband Plans usher in a new era where the power to select and enjoy relevant entertainment content and experiences are now within every family’s reach, ensuring that modern Filipino homes will never be lackluster again.”
For more information on the new Globe Broadband plans, visit our website at www.globe.com.ph/broadband, call the Globe hotline at 730-1010, or visit any Globe Store.
INQUIRER.NET/Lorelei Aquino