Sprightly Santa Web sites sprinkle seasonal cheer

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NORAD's Santa page lets you trace Santa's Christmas Eve progress with a 'radar screen'

By John F. Thorsberg

In this story: Santa's games, art projects Find a wired Santa Parental supervision suggested RELATED STORIES, SITES

(IDG) -- You don't have to look any further than the World Wide Web to find out if there really is a Santa Claus and how to get in touch with him. A search for the jolly old elf using the Google search engine took only one-tenth of a second and turned up 312,000 Santa sightings.

One of the best is the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which commits its space-age resources (in six different languages) to tracking Santa's aerial progress every Christmas Eve. NORAD's experts normally use their radar and satellite systems to defend the United States and Canada from missile launches. But the equipment is also perfect for tracking the progress of the red-suited-wonder's around-the-world journey on December 24 in a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer.

As the story goes, years ago a misprinted phone number for a Santa hotline had kids calling the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor. Instead of turning eager callers away, good-natured defense personnel offered to use their high-tech equipment to track the jolly elf and report on his position. Note that the site doesn't go live until December 24, and you must have at least version 6.0 of RealPlayer loaded to participate, so plan ahead. NORAD says that approximately 10 million people visited last Christmas Eve.

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Ever wonder how some of this Christmas stuff got started in the first place? Or maybe your kids are peppering you with questions about Santa's red suit, why we have Christmas trees, and why reindeer pull the sleigh? You can find answers at The Life Story of Santa Claus, which you can also print out and make into a book. And if you're desperate to get the kids away from the PC, try A Christmas Coloring Book, where you can download or print out graphics for children to cut out and/or color.

Claus.com, a site packed full of cheerful graphics, calls itself the merriest place in cyberspace. Here, you can get the biography of each reindeer, type in your name or the name of someone you know and get an instant "Naughty or Nice" rating (most are likely to be nice!), and send an e-mail to Santa that will be answered. Claus.com also has a good privacy disclosure policy prominently displayed and, as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, maintains a list to help you locate charitable organizations that would benefit financial or volunteer support, not only during the holiday season but throughout the year as well.

For an international slant, hear how "Merry Christmas" sounds in a foreign tongue at Christmas.com. The site features Christmas greetings from around the world, and offers quick sketches of how countries around the world celebrate the holidays. Or, for an "upside down" view of Christmas, go down under to Oz Kidz and learn from schoolchildren how Australia views Santa and friends.

Back in the dark ages before the Internet, Art Linkletter hosted a TV program called Kids Say the Darnedest Things. That sentiment is the impetus for the holiday Web site Santa's favorite e-mails. This compilation of requests covers a wide range. You'll find the simple, such as "I want a dog!" You'll see the sophomoric ("I heard that Mrs. Claus looks like Pamela Anderson. Are these rumors true?"). And then you'll find the sincere--"Please remember the children who are not as fortunate as me. I will leave your snack in the living room on the table by the tree."

Want to know exactly how much time before Santa arrives? Go to Santa Claus Online, where the days, hours, minutes, and seconds count down. At this site, you may also e-mail Santa, play some holiday games, and send free holiday e-cards. (Watch out for the shopping lures here.)

Ever wonder about the origin of that phrase, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus?" Well, you can find the answer online at Yes Virginia, which provides the text of the letter little Virginia O'Hanlon wrote the New York Sun back in 1897. Of course, it also provides the newspaper's classic defense of Santa Claus, and a biography of Virginia herself.

If your child doesn't have an e-mail address or you are uncomfortable giving it out, the Official Santa Claus Pen-Pal Place has a form where children may supply some slightly personal information like their favorite reindeer and their birth date, and an instant custom answer from Santa pops up.

Parents should note that Santa does not promise to bring exactly the toy the child wishes, so there won't be any serious over-promising. This site also has a nice list of holiday games and puzzles that may be played online. Take some time to evaluate sites, as most want to sell you goods or services. In fact, PCWorld.com recommends an adult checking out any site before directing a child there.

Along those lines, NorthPole4Kids.com has an excellent set of parental guidelines for visiting Santa sites during the busy season. These suggestions include having patience while pages, graphics, and sound files load, as these things make the experience more enjoyable for kids than just plain text pages. This site also provides Santa's Library Bookshelves, where you'll find the text of many classic Christmas stories, as well as the Elves Christmas Music Words, which provide the text to many Christmas carols.

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