Living Online over the Holidays

The December holidays have always been a time to kick back and spend quality time with family. With a year this crazy and keeping social distancing in mind, you may be spending more time at home than usual. As 2020 was the year the world went virtual, here are our picks for living online over the holidays.

Netflix Choices

Family and Kids Movies 

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey 

Genre: Musical 

Starring: Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville 

Decades after his trusted apprentice betrayed him, a once-joyful toymaker finds new hope when his kind and curious granddaughter comes into his life. 

Over the moon 

Genre: Animated Musical 

Starring: Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Ken Jeong 

Fuelled by memories of her mother, resourceful Fei Fei builds a rocket to the moon on a mission to prove the existence of a legendary moon goddess. 

The Princess Switch: Switched Again 

Genre: Romance 

Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Nick Sagar, Sam Palladio 

When Margaret’s Christmas coronation complicates her love life, her double Stacy steps in to save the day. But will a third look-alike ruin their plan? 

Comedy 

Holidate 

Starring: Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, Kristin Chenoweth 

Fed up with being single on holidays, two strangers agree to be each other’s platonic plus-ones all year long, only to catch real feelings along the way. 

The Prom 

Release Date: 11 December 

Starring: Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman 

A group of down-on-their-luck Broadway stars shake up life in small-town Indiana as they rally behind a teen fighting to bring her girlfriend to prom. 

 Sport / Drama 

Riding with Sugar 

Starring: Charles Mnene, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Simona Brown 

As painful memories spin in his head, a young refugee pedals toward a new future under a charitable mentor when fate challenges his BMX racing hopes. 

Based on Real Events 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 

Release Date: 18 December 

Starring: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman 

Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson’s play.  Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of trumpeter Levee was his final film role before his death in August 2020. 

Selena: The Series 

Release Date: 4 December 

Starring: Christian Serratos, Gabriel Chavarria, Ricardo Chavira 

Iconic Mexican-American performer Selena rises to fame as she and her family make sacrifices in order to achieve their lifelong dreams. Selena’s sister Suzette is an executive producer on this scripted series and helped develop this story with her family. 

The Crown, Season 4 

Starring: Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Tobias Menzies 

Named Best Drama at the Golden Globes, The Crown follows the political rivalries and romance of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign and the events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. The much awaited fourth season will see the introduction of Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher as it covers the time period between 1977 and 1990. 

Listen Up – Podcasts

True Crime South Africa 

Frequency: Weekly 

Episode Duration: 45 Mins 

True Crime South Africa covers real crimes that have been solved and left unsolved in weekly episodes of about 45 minutes. The podcast also covers crime-related content such as the realities of DNA testing in SA, chats with South African crime authors and unpacks the latest true-crime cases in South Africa. 

Sound Africa 

Frequency: Weekly 

Episode Duration: 30 Mins 

Sound Africa is produced by journalists and radio lovers who tell in-depth, authentic African stories. Their aim is to seek out untold and obscure stories that go against the cliches of how the African continent is traditionally spoken about while allowing a diverse range of people to tell their story. 

Matt Brown Show 

Frequency: Weekly 

Episode Duration: 1 Hour 

Hosted by #1 Amazon Best Selling Author, Matt Brown, the Matt Brown Show is perfect for entrepreneurs, business leaders and technologists. With a global listenership, the podcast covers everything from interviews with successful business people to talking about common issues faced by entrepreneurs. 

By Kids, For Kids Story Time 

Frequency: Weekly 

Episode Duration: 10 Mins 

Something for the kids instead of hours of screen time. By Kids, For Kids Story Time tells Classic Children’s fairy tales, presented as audio dramas, performed by kids, for kids. Including stories from Hans Christian Anderson, the Grimm Brothers, Greek myths, African folk tales and more. 

Play – Gaming

Sony Playstation 5, XBox X Series and XBox S Series 

Sony and Microsoft have released their latest consoles, PS5, X Series and S Series respectively just in time for the festive season. These next-gen consoles offer smoother gameplay, improvements to backwards compatible games and in the case of the PS5, the biggest console ever built.  

If you aren’t already enjoying one of these new additions, you can still order one in time for Christmas and get one of the latest game releases to go along with it (these releases are also available for PC and previous generation consoles). 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 

The twelfth major instalment in the Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is set in 870 AD during the Viking invasion of England. Like its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the game is open-world with the main character being Eivor, who has changed from being an eagle bearer to having a Raven companion named Sýnin. Other new features include the dual-wielding of any weapon and more non-linear gameplay. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 

The sixth instalment in the Black Ops series, first-person shooter game, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set during the Cold War in the early 1980s. The story is inspired by actual events and game locations including East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey and the Soviet KGB headquarters. With greater customisation options, custom characters codenamed Bell can be created with different ethnicities, genders and backgrounds.  Customised personality traits will also provide in – game perks and player choices made throughout the campaign will also contribute towards multiple endings. 

Immortals Fenyx Rising  

An open-world action-adventure third-person perspective video game with a light-hearted tone, Immortals Fenyx Rising follows the story of Fenyx who is quested with rescuing the Greek gods from the revengeful Titan Typhon while fighting off mythical creatures and unlocking god-like abilities. 

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