Your Ultimate Apple Entertainment Guide for the Festive Season

Unwind with Curated Playlists, Blockbusters, and Must-Watch New Series

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With some serious downtime on the cards in the following weeks, Apple is on a mission to ensure you have enough at hand to keep you entertained, be it on your phone, television, or other devices. Whether you’re watching a film or series, or streaming your favourite tunes on that amazing road trip, we’ve found a selection that we think will keep the mood light and the moments flowing. Enjoy, folks, and be sure to try the QR codes out for quick and easy access!

Curated playlists to get your boogie on

Best songs of 2025 – If the music we loved in 2025 tells us anything, it’s that this was a great year for a reset. Everywhere we looked and listened, our biggest stars seemed to be offering truths wrought from self-reflection and even insights for improvement. Relationships anchored many of the year’s most revealing and infectious tracks, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True,” and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need.” Some were venting, others came with solutions. Kehlani’s “Folded” urged us to release what no longer serves us, while Lady Gaga turned inward to find the real magic on “Abracadabra,” and BLACKPINK captured the sound of sisterhood on “JUMP.” There were songs about loss (Bad Bunny’s “DtMF”), and ones that celebrated success, like Drake’s “NOKIA,” Clipse’s “Ace Trumpets,” or CORTIS’ “GO!”

Like a conversation with a cherished friend, so many of the songs we loved in 2025 delivered wisdom, reflection, and, inevitably, release. These are the best songs of the year across all genres as chosen by the Apple Music editors. Listen now.

Essential Christmas – Music has been an essential part of any holiday celebration for centuries. This playlist honours that history, collecting old chestnuts, new classics, and future singalong staples to soundtrack your next Christmas. Trim the tree, open the presents, and serve up some eggnog as pop stars, hip-hop legends, rockers, and soul singers raise their voices. You know you have to, it’s that time of year! Listen now.

Mzansi Hits – We couldn’t resist listing this one. From Amapiano and house to Afro-pop, hip-hop, R&B and everything in between, this is the best of the best from South Africa’s biggest artists, including Cassper Nyovest, Amanda Black, Sun-El Musician, Blaq Diamond, Elaine, Kabza De Small and more. The Apple editors update this playlist often, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library and keep coming back for more. Listen now.

Movies to keep an eye on

The Family Plan 2 — In The Family Plan 2, an Apple Original Film, it’s the holiday season, and Dan (Mark Wahlberg) has planned the perfect international vacation for his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) and their kids, until a mysterious figure from his past (Kit Harington) shows up with unfinished business. A cross-border game of cat-and-mouse ensues as Dan and his family battle, bicker, and bond their way through a series of bank heists, holiday hijinks, and car chases amid scenic European terrain. Watch now.

F1 The Movie — Apple Original Films has announced that F1 (sometimes referred to as ‘F1 the Movie), the highest-grossing sports film of all time, will make its global streaming debut on Apple TV on Friday, 12 December 2025, following its record-breaking theatrical run. It follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), once dubbed “the greatest that never was.” He was Formula 1®’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), owner of a struggling Formula 1® team that is on the verge of collapse. Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to Formula 1® for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie, intent on setting his own pace. But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him, and he finds that in Formula 1®, your teammate is your fiercest competition — and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone. Watch here.

Series, series, series

Born to be Wild — Born to be Wild is a new wildlife series, narrated by SAG Award winner Hugh Bonneville (Paddington, Downton Abbey, The Secret Lives of Animals). Filmed over several years across three continents, the six-part documentary series follows six endangered young animals as they grow up in our world but are destined to return to theirs. From their earliest days through their journey to life in the wild, the series highlights the challenges, triumphs and resilience that define their survival, both for the animals and the extraordinary people working to raise and protect them. Born to be Wild premieres worldwide on Friday, 19 December, on Apple TV. Watch here.

Pluribus — Pluribus is a highly anticipated science fiction drama produced by Breaking Bad creator and Better Call Saul co-creator Vince Gilligan, starring Rhea Seehorn. The episodes in the nine-part series come out weekly, with the entire series to be available by 26 December 2025. Pluribus is a genre-bending original in which the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness, making for an interesting storyline through the series, to say the least. Watch here.

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EDITOR'S CHOICE

Deenash Pillay Head of Small Enterprises at Standard Bank South Africa

Money Talk

Q&A with Deenash Pillay, Head of Small Enterprises at Standard Bank

South Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and determined — but running a small business today still comes with real obstacles: access to capital, skills development, the right networks, and the ever-evolving digital landscape. Few institutions understand this better than Standard Bank, and at the heart of their Small Enterprise strategy is Deenash Pillay, a leader who believes in meeting entrepreneurs where they are, walking the journey with them, and unlocking the tools that turn potential into sustainable growth.
In our exclusive interview with Mr Pillay, we unpack Standard Bank’s three core pillars for advancing SMMEs: Access to Funding, Skills & Non-Financial Support, and Market Access through Digital Enablement.

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