The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year, filled with parties, ugly sweaters, and watching the ball drop. With the season of giving quickly approaching, we’ve rounded up some unexpected ways a few tried and true sites can make your life easier—from mapping out who’s bringing what to Thanksgiving dinner to picking the perfect outfit for New Year’s Eve.

• Rent the Runway. Whether it’s your office holiday party or New Year’s Eve, why buy a dress you’ll only wear once? With Rent the Runway you can seamlessly rent dresses anytime, anywhere from your smartphone. Browse through 80,000+ designer dresses, get recommendations, and organize your favorite styles into groups with specific events in mind. Afterwards, return everything for free—RTR takes care of the dry cleaning—and upload your photo and review to share your experience with others.
• Mint. Get your finances in check so you don’t blow your whole holiday budget on a new flatscreen TV. Try out a financial management tool like Mint, which allows you to set and track budgets for things like holiday shopping and seasonal travel. The Mint Life blog provides useful financial tips and tricks to help you save money during the holiday season and beyond. Here’s to starting the new year on steady financial footing.
• Pinterest. Wow friends with your DIY holiday decorating skills, or create the ultimate shopping list for your Christmas party. You can pull up recipes you’ve Pinned on your phone from the grocery store and easily shop for ingredients. Create a group board to plan a dinner for Thanksgiving or Christmas, or an informal potluck and have everyone Pin what they’ll bring. You can even make a playlist for your holiday party and keep track of your favorite wines. We also love Pinterest’s price drop notifications: Pin your favorite products and you’ll receive a “your pin’s price dropped!” email when the item goes on sale.
• Facebook. Facebook Events make it easy to plan holiday parties and Secret Santa/White Elephant exchanges without the hassle of an email thread. Add details, location, and even weather forecasts to your event and control who can see, and share, your invitation with customized privacy settings.  Still need a plan for NYE?  Check out popular events nearby to join in. Facebook Groups is our secret weapon for coordinating those myriad holiday activities with friends, family, and co-workers.  Create a Secret Group with family and friends to connect on travel details and the holiday shopping game plan, or check out Public Groups to look for gift inspiration and holiday recipe ideas. And with Facebook Photos, grandma and grandpa back on the east coast don’t have to miss out on the festivities. Use shared photo albums to swap photos of holiday fun all season long with select family members and friends.
• Amazon. Need a break from the fam? Or just want some downtime while the turkey cooks? Amazon’s Kindle Voyage is the perfect way to curl up by the fire and escape with a book. If you’re in the mood to binge-watch your favorite TV series, try Amazon’s Fire TV for instant access to more than 200K movies and TV episodes through Prime Instant Video, SHOWTIME, Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, exclusive content from HBO, and more. For those traveling over the holidays, keep your Fire TV Stick with you and connect it to the HDMI port on your HDTV for instant access to movies, TV shows, music, photos, apps and games. You’ll be able to watch your favorite shows and movies whether you’re at a hotel or your great aunt’s house.

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