The festive season is upon us, at last. Think hot chocolate with marshmallows, reuniting with family, and the satisfaction of dishing out presents you know will wow. How could it get better? Why, with a VPN, of course!
Okay, bear with me. Virtual Private Networks might not sound all that jolly, but everyone could benefit from a VPN – especially as 2024 has seen shocking amounts of data harvesting and blackouts. Today’s best VPNs prevent third-party snooping and ensure you can go about your day-to-day browsing with an extra layer of security. Nice, right?
In addition to the serious security-boosting stuff, your VPN can make the Christmas holidays go more smoothly – at least from a digital perspective (they won’t step in to placate your aunt when she drops the trifle, unfortunately). Here are 5 ways your VPN can make this Christmas an absolute banger.
1. Stream Wallace and Gromit
Christmas is all about time-honored traditions. Decorating the tree together, caroling, the annual panic to prepare Christmas Eve boxes. If you’re anything like my family, however, gathering around the TV to watch Wallace and Gromit is by far the most important.
The best of British
Wondering which VPNs provide the most reliable access to all your favorite British shows? Check out our guide to the best VPNs for BBC iPlayer.
The good news is that a brand new Wallace and Gromit adventure premieres worldwide in January 2025: A Vengeance Most Fowl. The bad news? You’ll need to be in the United Kingdom to watch it earlier on Christmas day via BBC One and BBC iPlayer (at 6.10 pm).
Naturally, if you’re not lucky enough to be shivering on this frozen isle, you might think that you automatically miss out on the hijinks, the cheese, that one really evil penguin…
Your VPN has you covered, however, thanks to its geo-spoofing capabilities. Boot up your VPN and you’ll see a list of servers dotted all over the world – connect to one, and the sites you visit will think you’re in the same place, physically, and serve up that country’s specific streaming content.
So, all you need to do is join a UK server, open up BBC iPlayer on the big day, and you’re golden.
2. Demonstrate how great the internet looks without ads to your mum
The following scene plays out in my house every year like clockwork: we’re in the living room, everyone is on their phones, and my mum shows me a hilarious photo she stumbled across on the internet.
Unfortunately, I can’t enjoy what is surely a joke at my expense because her browser is overrun with ads—pop-ups, banners, those annoying ones that take up the entire bottom half of the screen—the works.
A VPN ad-blocker helps pages load faster and saves mobile data
Now, a VPN won’t automatically rid you of these annoyances, but some services have built-in ad-blockers – and they make short work of ads (even the creepy targeted ones). I have ExpressVPN installed on my Android and take a certain amount of delight in showing off my crisp ad-free browsing tabs. I may not have my mum’s meme-hunting skills, but at least I won’t accidentally click a malicious link waiting to zap my phone with malware.
A VPN and ad-blocker combo has other benefits, too. You’ll notice pages load faster because you’re not waiting on a dozen ads to load, and this means you’ll save on mobile data, too, which is massively handy if you’re out and about.
3. Share the love
Christmas, as we all know, is the season of giving – and yes, I’m talking about presents. By now, I hope you have the majority of your gift shopping done (and if you don’t, what on earth are you doing reading this?), but if you’re looking for a little extra something to show your family and friends that you care, a VPN really does the trick.
VPN newbie? No problem
If you (or your family) have never used a VPN before, you’ll want to check out our guide to today’s best VPNs for beginners.
No, I’m serious! VPNs like Surfshark offer unlimited simultaneous connections. That means an unlimited number of people can log in, install, and use a Surfshark app at the same time. No caps, no limits.
Sharing your login with trusted loved ones lets you give them the gift of boosted digital privacy, geo-spoofing powers, and a safer start to 2025.
Surfshark isn’t the only VPN to offer unlimited connections, Private Internet Access does, too, but the majority of VPNs cap them at around 10. That’s still plenty, but you’ll need to be choosier about who you offer your login to, which could cause some glaring over the dining table if your weird Uncle Alan is left out. I’m trying to save you, here.
4. Put all your Christmas snaps into the cloud
I truly believe that we should all be taking more pictures. Looking back at physical snaps of Christmases gone by is such a nostalgic treat – and there’s no reason why, armed with mobile phones and digital cameras, we can’t recapture this feeling in 2024.
Okay, enough of that misty-eyed stuff. The next question you might have is, well, where are you supposed to store those pictures? My #1 recommendation is the Cloud – for pure convenience’s sake if nothing else. Even better, a select number of VPNs come with private storage services.
NordLocker, for example, uses zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption to protect your photos. Simply put? You won’t need to worry about anyone gaining unauthorized access and you have complete control over who you share your precious (or private) digital memories with.
5. Plan a budget-friendly escape
Okay, let’s say that you’ve had your fill of Christmas cheer and you’re done dealing with relatives – for me, this usually happens by Boxing Day.
Whether you’re looking to escape the leftover turkey and hundreds of cardboard boxes that need breaking down, or just want to plan a getaway in the new year, a VPN can help you save some money in the process.
How? Well, it’s all to do with where you are in the world. Hotels, flights, train tickets, and more all have prices that vary depending on location – it’s called price discrimination. To make matters worse, certain items can get more expensive the more you visit the page, to try and rush you into a purchase.
Planning a holiday in the New Year? A VPN can help save you money
VPN put a stop to this by encrypting your data and masking your original IP address. Basically, the sites you visit won’t be able to tell where you really are– they’ll assume you’re in the same location as the VPN server you connect to. This also comes in handy if you’re a real savvy shopper and want to shop around, hopping from location to location, to find massive bargains. And you should – you deserve it.
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river.hart@futurenet.com (River Hart)
