Holiday HQ

Holiday HQ Support

 

Welcome to Holiday HQ — your all-in-one holiday and birthday organizer. Here's a quick guide to every section of the app.

 

Search

- Tap the search bar on the home screen to search everything at once.

- Finds people, receipts, checklist items, and calendar events.

- PDF receipts with embedded text are fully searchable by content.

 

People

- Add family, friends, or colleagues and track their gift ideas, hobbies, and wish lists.

- Set birthdays — they'll appear on the Birthday Calendar with countdown badges.

- Attach receipts and checklist items directly to a person's profile.

- Add a phone number, or tap Import from Contacts to fill in their name and number.

- Tap Chat on their profile to start a conversation, or Refresh Photo to pull in their latest chat photo.

- Free accounts can add up to 3 people; Holiday HQ Unlimited removes that limit.

 

Checklists

- Create to-do items for Holiday or Birthday planning.

- Assign each item to any person — type a name or pick from your People list.

- Set due dates, reminders, a location, and a website link per item.

- Attach a photo and link a receipt to any checklist item.

- Gift ideas live on each person's own Gift Checklist instead of the main list.

- A red flag appears on the Checklists tile at home when something's due today or overdue.

 

Receipts

- Tap the camera icon to scan a receipt — the full document scanner captures multiple pages as a PDF.

- Or add a receipt manually with store name, date, and amount.

- View spending by person, by month, or all at once.

- Tap the report icon to generate a PDF spending report grouped by person or date, then share it.

 

Chats

- Start a 1:1 chat from a person's profile, or tap + → New Message, New Group, or Join with Code.

- Messages sync via iCloud — the other person needs the app installed.

- Share photos, links, and notes. Long-press any message to save it to a person's profile.

- Group chats show everyone's avatars at the top; 1:1 chats show the other person's.

- Tap the invite button to Copy, Share, or Text an invite code — Text Invite fills in a saved phone number for you.

- Set a Chat Photo in Settings so people you talk to can pull it into their own People list.

- Long-press a message from someone else to Block them or Report the message. Blocked people's messages are hidden in every chat on this device — manage blocks anytime in Settings.

 

Wish

- Tap the WISH button on the home screen to send a gift wish.

- Add what you want, details, a budget hint, and an optional photo — from your camera or library.

- Pick who to send it to from your 1:1 chats, and it's delivered as a chat message.

- It lands automatically in your Gift Wishes on their end — no importing needed.

 

Calendars

- Holiday Calendar tracks events like Christmas, Hanukkah, or any holiday you add.

- Birthday Calendar shows upcoming birthdays from your People list.

- Custom Calendar is a free-form calendar for any events you want to track.

- Tap Holiday Traditions at the top of the Custom Calendar (or in Settings) to bulk-add holidays from religious and cultural traditions.

- Traditions with a real formula or fixed date add both this year and next; lunar-calendar traditions add this year only and need re-adding annually.

- Set reminders on any event so you never miss a date.

 

Countdown

- Long-press any calendar event, or tap a date in any calendar, to pin a countdown to the home screen.

- The countdown shows days, hours, minutes, and seconds live.

- Tap × on the countdown widget to remove it.

 

Holiday HQ Unlimited

- Holiday HQ is free with up to 3 people in your People list.

- Holiday HQ Unlimited is a one-time purchase that removes that limit, forever — no subscription.

- Manage or restore your purchase any time from Settings.

 

Privacy & Data

- People, checklists, gift ideas, notes, receipts, and photos are stored locally on your device — never on our servers.

- Chat messages and photos sync through Apple's iCloud only to enable the chat feature, and only with people you've invited or who join with your code.

- Holiday HQ has no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking of any kind.

- Turn on Face ID or Touch ID lock in Settings to require biometrics each time you return to the app.

- Set your Chat Display Name and Chat Photo in Settings — shown to people you chat with.

- Delete My Data in Settings permanently and irreversibly erases everything you've saved — on this device and in iCloud — including chat messages you've sent and any conversations you're part of.