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Tales2Go bundles 20 holiday audiobooks into 99-cent app

This killer app for kids includes streaming versions of "The Night Before Christmas," "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," among others.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read
Tales2Go - Happy Holidays offers holiday-themed audiobooks for all ages--a little something for everyone.
Tales2Go - Happy Holidays offers holiday-themed audiobooks for all ages--a little something for everyone. Screenshot by Rick Broida

I'm a longtime fan of Tales2Go, the iOS app that provides unlimited children's audiobooks for a flat monthly rate.

Tales2Go - Happy Holidays bundles 20 seasonal audiobooks into one app, with no subscription required. Instead, you pay just 99 cents. That's a great deal any way you slice it, and an outright steal for parents and schoolteachers alike.

The collection includes short stories, full-length books, and even a familiar poem or two. Here's a sampling:

  • Two versions of "A Christmas Carol"
  • "Clifford's Christmas"
  • "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"
  • "The Gift of the Magi"
  • "The Night Before Christmas"
  • "The Story of Hanukkah"

All told, the app delivers more than 30 hours' worth of audiobook goodness. And because there's no subscription requirement, you get lifetime access to these stories.

Like the original Tales2Go app, Happy Holidays relies on streaming--something to consider if you're on a limited data plan. That said, if you start listening to a story via a Wi-Fi connection, the app will quickly download the entire thing to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and keep it cached there until you're done listening.

That means you can get into a car or on an airplane without having to worry about an available Internet connection. Alas, the app can cache only one audiobook at a time. In an ideal world, it would store all of them on your device.

Tales2Go is coming soon for Android and desktops, and there are plans for additional "themed" bundles down the road. In the meantime, this is perhaps the best 99 cents you can spend on your kids this holiday season.