Add your first gift day
A gift day is any day you count down to: a birthday, a holiday, a party. On Home, tap Add next to Your gift days. Pick Just our family for a countdown of your own, or With other families to run a gift exchange. You set it once and it comes back every year.
Add your kids
On the Dashboard, tap Add Child. Each one gets their own card with a name, age and interests. A child counting down to a different day, like their own birthday, can have their own date on their card instead.
Put gifts on the list
On the child’s card, type into the “Add a gift” box and tap Add. Your child can also add their own wishes in Kids Mode - both land on the same list.
Set the behavior score
Slide the score as behavior changes. That is the whole trick: kids see the behavior score move with it, and best behavior follows. It waits a few seconds before it records, so a slip of the thumb is easy to undo, and a note box opens under the slider if you want to jot down why.
Tick what the Gift Keeper is bringing
Check off a gift once it is bought. Your child only ever sees how many gifts are coming, never which ones.
Share the wishlist link
Send grandparents, aunts and uncles a private link with the wishlist and the behavior score. They need no app and no account. They can claim a gift so nobody buys the same present twice, and your child never sees who claimed what. Add an Amazon wish list and they can buy straight from it.
Run the family gift exchange
Exchange tab → start one for kids, adults or both, then share the join code so each family adds its own people, or add them yourself. One tap matches every child to a buying family fairly and draws the adult names in secret. My picks shows who you are buying for, Balance shows that the load is even, and Party holds the date, time, address and what to bring. Tap the address to open Maps.
On iPhone: ask Siri, and watch the countdown
Say “Hey Siri, when is the Happy Gift Day event” for the date, time, address and what to bring, or “Hey Siri, who am I buying for in Happy Gift Day”. On party day, open the app and a countdown with a gift icon runs on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island for the last hours before the start. Party tab → Remind me on party day sets a 9am nudge on your phone. Add the Happy Gift Day widget to your Home Screen to see the days to go. Siri knows what the app showed the last time you opened it.
Turn on Holiday mode for Christmas
Settings → Holiday mode. One switch turns the whole app into Happy Santa: Santa's List, naughty or nice, and a countdown to December 25. Nothing else changes, both parents see it, and you can switch back whenever you like. The rest of the year it counts down to your own big day.
Light, Dim or Dark
Settings → Appearance. Dim is a softer dark: easier at bedtime than full Dark, with cards that still stand off the page. System follows your phone and uses Dim when it asks for dark. This one is just for your device, not the whole family.
Set a PIN before you hand the phone over
Settings → Kids Mode PIN. Kids Mode only opens once a parent PIN is set, and leaving Kids Mode asks for it.
Parenting is hard. Happy Gift Day gives you one more thing that works.