20 things to do online on Christmas Day

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kylie_minogue.jpgShould you find yourself at a loose end on Christmas Day, with nothing but a laptop and Internet connection, then here are twenty things you could do to pass the time until the Boxing Day sales start and you can go and buy yourself a new sofa. Though I think Zara might have something to say about not being geeky on Christmas Day

1. Find as many ways of watching the Queen’s Christmas Day speech as possible

Yes, yes, it’s on BBC1, ITV1, BBC HD, and Sky HD, but this year it will be sent out as a podcast, will be available on the BBC News web site, and will no doubt appear on YouTube at some point – probably by some geek testing out his new laptop.

2. Download the lyrics for as many Kylie Minogue songs and start singing them at 6.50pm

Yes, Kylie’s in Doctor Who, and you can ruin the whole experience by singing “I Should Be So Lucky” as the Titanic goes down.

3. Visit the Gone With the Wind web site

View the history, and take the trivia test. It might not take you three-and-a-half hours to complete, though.

4. Find a BitTorrent of The Great Escape…

…because you always watch it on Christmas Day, but hadn’t realised it was on 23rd this year. Not that we’re advocating illegally downloading content. You could always buy the DVD from Amazon instead.

5. Download music and lyrics for Christmas carols and songs

It might be that you’re the only one who sings along, but hey, it is Christmas.

6. See how many people have updated their blogs today

Be sure to check both Technorati and Google Blog Search. More if you feel so inclined.

7. Update your own blog

Because everyone will want to read about how many sprouts you eat. And if you don’t have a blog…

8. Start a new blog

Just because you can, and it will probably be the worst one you’ve ever written.

9. Add Christmas decorations to your blog

You’ve resisted so far, but you know that flashing Christmas lights animation is just dying to go onto your web site.

10. Start planning next year’s collection of stupid USB gadgets

Because you can never start too early overloading your PC with useless tat.

11. Start eBay auctions for unwanted Christmas presents

Just be sure to do it surreptitiously if you’re sat in the same room as the person the gift came from.

12. Use the Internet Movie Database to make a list for charades

You know someone is going to want to play this traditional, low-tech game at some point between The Queen’s Christmas Message and EastEnders, so you may as well get a decent list of films and TV shows ready so that you’re not all doing “Jaws”.

13. Get ready for the New Year

Learn the words and the history of Auld Lang Syne and laugh at Wikipedia’s attempt at the Scots pronunciation guide.

14. Use the Internet Anagram Server to solve all the cryptic crosswords

Most newspapers and magazines seem to have giant cryptic crosswords during the festive period, many of which rely on the humble anagram. Save some time (cheat) with this online resource.

15. Add every available application to your Facebook account

See if you can crash your profile page, or at least make it take over five minutes to load.

16. Mug up on HD DVD and Blu-ray

and convince yourself / your nan why you bought the right / wrong format.

17. Play as many online snowball games as possible

Here are a few to get you started. You know that there won’t be any real snow in Britain on Christmas Day.

18. Visit our 50 Christmas web sites from last year

Be a good web citizen by ensuring that they all still exist and haven’t turned into pr0n sites.

19. See how many Christmas LOLCats you can find

Coz those crazy cats are sure to be celebrating Yuletide.

20. Find out the dates for rubbish, recycling, and Christmas tree collection

Of course it’s boring! If you’ve read this far on Christmas Day and you’ve really nothing to do (even EastEnders has to be better than this) then you might as well do something truly useful.

Perhaps, instead, you should just open another can of beer, kick back, and warm up the vocal cords for your Kylie impersonation.

Happy Christmas!

Related posts:
30 Last Minutee Tech Gadget Christmas Stocking Fillers
Top 50 Christmas web sites
Top 10 all-new spam email subject headings
Tech Digest solves your Christmas woes: top five laptops

Andy Merrett
For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv

3 comments

    • Sam, I have plenty of things to do on Christmas Day. What’s really SAD is you commenting on an article that’s over a year old and was supposed to be HUMOROUS.

      It’s you, therefore, who needs to get a life.

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