32 Things That Help CR Staffers Reduce Holiday Stress

These products help keep our staffers organized, prepared, and entertained while traveling.

The Amazon Fire HD 10’s capabilities go far beyond what I use it for. During the holiday season, this tablet is handy to take along when visiting family. It enables me to read books on a road trip, watch movies when on a treadmill, and have entertainment, if needed, in the evenings. This low-cost tablet is also a tremendous value—the savings on digital books alone have paid for it—and it’s more conducive to reading in bed. Plus, I can increase the text size as I age. —Jeff Bartlett, autos managing editor

For more options: Best Tablets

Mack’s UltraSoft foam earplugs are a must for me when it comes to getting peaceful sleep and are doubly important when I travel. Nothing is worse than disrupted sleep during potentially stressful times like the holidays. During a recent trip to my parents’ house (the house I grew up in), I couldn’t sleep for nearly a whole night because I had misplaced my earplugs. Now, I always pack a spare pair. I use foam earplugs because the gel ones get gross after you use them for a while. —Pang-Chieh Ho, senior content creator

For more options: Best Earplugs

We do a lot of traveling around the holidays, and MightyMind puzzles are invaluable for keeping my rowdy preschooler engaged and quiet for long stretches of time during road trips and flights. Kids position the puzzle pieces to build shapes outlined on cards, and each successive card has a shape that’s a little more complex than the last. When I was growing up, I had a version of the same game with wood puzzle pieces, but this modern version is made with magnetic pieces, which makes it so much easier for kids to keep the pieces in place as they play, especially while in a car seat. —Lauren Kirchner, special projects deputy editor

I bought this two-pack of Beckham Luxury Linens Hotel Collection pillows, which are often on sale, and shipped them to my parents’ home so that I can have the pillows I like when I visit for the holidays (and any time of year, of course). If I didn’t have the pillows, it would be an even more miserable experience sleeping in the living room with one of their spare down pillows that’s lost all its feathers, while listening to my brother snore as the air mattress slowly deflates beneath me. —Mary Beth Quirk, shopping managing editor

For more options: Best Pillows

All I need during the holiday season is remote start, heated seats, and a heated steering wheel. —Joe Veselak, assistant test project leader

I like remote start (and preconditioning on EVs) because I can arrive to a warm car with the heated seats already turned on. Unfortunately, for many cars, it means paying for a monthly subscription so that I can use an automaker’s app. But remote start subscriptions often give me automatic collision notification (ACN) and SOS along with it, which automatically notifies emergency services if my car is involved in an accident.

Newer Toyota owners won’t need to worry about signing up for a subscription to use remote start, though. In their case, all they’ll have to do to start their vehicle remotely is press the lock button on the key fob three times and hold it for at least 3 seconds on the third press and it’s good to go. —Alex Knizek, manager, auto testing & insights

We put the CR recommended Michelin X-Ice snow tires on my wife’s all-wheel-drive Prius. I no longer worry about her getting up our driveway in the winter. —Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing

For more options: Best Winter/Snow Tires

Don’t forget about your guests’ tech needs. These gadgets will get them charged up and keep the music flowing this holiday season.

At some point during the holidays, a family member or neighbor will need a jump-start. For that, I keep this Noco booster pack charged up. Inside the house, I also have cell phone external battery packs—this one and this one—which are great to hand out to visiting teenagers who forget their chargers. And no need to find an outlet or worry if you have the correct cable. —Shawn Sinclair, automotive engineer

Holiday music is essential to me. I can tailor Apple Music playlists on my phone and stream them to a Bluetooth speaker when I’m entertaining at home or connect them to my car. Ideally, you’d have CarPlay or Android Auto for the car, and at home, I use a JBL Flip 5 speaker, which is waterproof and comes in fun colors. —Jennifer Stockburger, Auto Test Center director of operations

For more options: Best Waterproof Wireless Outdoor Speakers

For those who love to cook, food is one of the highlights of the holidays. We have smart tips to help the family chefs both endure and enjoy the process.

Yummly has served me well for holiday food options. The app has an easy interface, and you don’t have to be a member or pay to use it. One drawback is the ads, but the search is easy to use, there are always dozens of recipes, and it’s easy to cut and paste or export from the app to create a shopping list. —Jon Linkov, autos deputy editor

For more options: Best Smart Meat Thermometers

My wife has a big family, and our house tends to be the gathering spot on Thanksgiving. Between her family and mine, we’ve had 25 guests on some holidays. That means a lot of cooks in the kitchen at once, and it means ovens and stovetops are 110 percent utilized. The good, old-fashioned Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry manual slow cooker lets you cook a dish in the background of the main-event dishes without having to check on it frequently. It also allows you to set up an all-day, serve-yourself, prefeast snack for your guests that gets them away from the furious prep work. —Glenn Derene, senior director of content strategy

For more options: Best Slow Cookers

I used to brine my Thanksgiving turkeys in a gallon of saline solution to increase flavor and add moisture, but safely disposing of the liquid afterward was a concern because of the foodborne pathogens swimming in it. About four years ago, I started filling a Traeger stainless steel meat injector with flavored solutions to inject into my birds. It has worked out so much better, and I no longer have to worry about a bacterial soup contaminating my kitchen. —James E. Rogers, PhD, director of food safety research and testing

My family loves mashed potatoes, and my Oxo Good Grips 3-in-1 Adjustable Potato Ricer makes it super-easy to get the smooth, creamy texture my children crave without overworking the mash (which results in a glutinous texture). —Diane Umansky, print deputy editor

My essentials are a Taylor 1476 Instant Read Digital Thermometer to avoid over- or undercooking turkey, ham, beef rib roast, stuffing, etc., and a knife sharpener. (I like the top-rated Chef’s Chef’s Choice Model 15XV.) I do a really thorough round of sharpening before I start holiday meal prep so that everything is sharp and ready to go when I need it. —Paul Hope, senior home writer

For more options: Best Smart Meat Thermometers

This Imusa Colombian Caldero is just like the one my mom had when I was growing up. I use it anytime I need to cook curries and stews in large quantities. I also use it for cornbread stuffing because I always make too much. Since it’s wide and not too deep, it’s easy to stir foods as they simmer, and I find that my meat curries cook more evenly and don’t get as broken up as when I use a tall pot. —Emily A. Thomas, PhD, auto safety manager

I use the Breville The Smart Oven BOV800XL to keep bread or other items warm since I’m usually roasting in the main oven. I’ve had this thing for more than 10 years and used it in five houses, and it’s always been perfect. —Paul Hope, senior home writer

For more options: Best Smart Toaster Ovens

I know she’s a person and not a product, but I couldn’t do without Ina Garten, host of the TV show “Barefoot Contessa.” Her recipes are easy, foolproof, and amazing. The ones for entertaining are all great, and her special drinks are very special. —Ellen Kunes, print editorial director

Ina Garten can do no wrong. Her cookbook “Make It Ahead” (Clarkson Potter, 2014) is comprised entirely of make-ahead recipes, and it’s a saving grace. Seriously, one year I missed 45 minutes of Thanksgiving dinner because I was attempting to make gravy from scratch. Now I have a handful of dishes I can make the night before or even two days before the main meal, and it takes so much stress out of cooking the day of. —Anna Kocharian, shopping editor

During the holidays, I make about 10 different kinds of cookies, plus pies, stollen, Buche de Noel, etc. Parchment paper is a must (it prevents so much stuck-cookie heartbreak), but I’d also especially hate to be without my decades-old KitchenAid Classic K45SSWH stand mixer this time of year. I only wish I had room for a model with a larger bowl and a pouring shield. —Amanda Lecky, print deputy editor

A dish that can seamlessly transition from the oven to the table is a no-brainer for entertaining. I love the versatility of my Staub baking dishes because they’re prime for the sweet, savory, and in-between (like my meringue-topped sweet potato soufflé). The brand’s 12-inch dish is perfect for large serving recipes, and I find the oval shape aesthetically pleasing, not to mention easier to clean. (Scrubbing caramelized sugar off the corners of a square dish is never a good time.) I rely on them to help keep my loaded cornbread stuffing crisp on the outside and indulgently buttery on the inside. Having that pop of color against a white tablecloth doesn’t hurt, either. —Anna Kocharian, shopping editor

Enameled Dutch ovens can go from fridge to stovetop to oven to table, which makes them great for prepping ahead. You also don’t need to dirty more dishes because you don’t need separate cookware and platters. I have many, but I love this red monster: Le Creuset’s Enameled Cast Iron Signature Round dutch oven. —Paul Hope, senior home writer

For more options: Best Dutch Ovens

Blankets, frothers, and more right this way.

The Secura is the best milk frother of all the ones I’ve gone through (this one has lasted a record . . . about a year and a half). It is seriously the best, and for less. I don’t use it for entertaining. I use it for morning sanity and as a money saver: My foam is better than Starbucks’. —Ellen Kunes, print editorial director

Last year for my birthday, which falls during the holidays, a friend bought me an Aerolatte milk frother. It felt like such a luxury to warm my milk up every morning and have the comfort of a coffee shop latte at home. I decided it was the perfect way to treat myself and start the day every day. But like every product that comes into my home, my teenage sons got a hold of the frother and in a fury of hot chocolate frothing, managed to defroth my frother. I now need to buy a new one. —Jen Shecter, acting head of content

For more options: Best Milk Frothers

My Apple Watch SE makes me more thoughtful about my actions during the day, whether that’s needing to exercise for a few more minutes to complete my rings (yes, I care about the rings) or, in the other direction, should I really have that second slice of apple pie given that it’s 200 calories (or whatever)? It’s like a personal trainer that’s always with me. Before I had it, I was flying blind with respect to minutes exercised or calories burned. —Nicholas De Leon, senior electronics writer

For more options: Which Apple Watch Should I Buy?

The holidays can be stressful, and daily dog walks along the backroads by our house allow me and my family to de-stress. As the sunsets get earlier and earlier, our walks happen in the dark, so we purchased Noxgear Tracer2 lighted vests for us and a Noxgear LightHound vest for our dog. The LED vests allow us to walk safely, and several drivers have stopped to thank us for being so visible. —Jason Holmes, director of testing

My faux fur blanket from L.L.Bean is heavy, warm, and beautiful. It doesn’t shed, it somehow rejects odors, and it’s the perfect size for someone on the small side. I use it constantly from October until April and don’t know how I’d survive winter without it. —Angela Lashbrook, audience growth writer