Santa used to come into our lives down chimneys, in mall courtyards and through letters sent from the North Pole.
But now, Santa’s also a very popular cybercitizen, especially at this time of year.
Some Santa Web sites are full of fun, free interactive games, storytelling and activities. Others are largely commercial, with little but shopping links or hawking a letter from Santa, a “live” call or a cheaper, prerecorded version, all for a price, of course.
Still others are largely marketing tools for Web developers.
Santa’s debut on the Internet took place in the dinosaur days of 1993, when MCI Mail answered e-mails from kids to Mr. Claus, and an Internet pioneer named Carl Malamud started a similar service after a parent asked him if Santa was online.
Malamud and friends tinkered with an existing program to generate automatic replies from Santa Claus.
Malamud estimated that they got about 70,000 e-mails from children that first year. “I wasn’t surprised because there were lots of kids on the Web then and it was a big year for the Internet,” he said.
The next year, they created a Web site, north.pole.org, that still exists, mostly as an archive.
Malamud foresees a day when American children stop mailing handwritten letters to Santa altogether.
“Do kids send snail mail to anybody?” he said.
Given this trend, we took a look at some online Santa sites. Here is some of what we found:
www.northpole.com: a largely uncommercial site that is uber child-friendly and filled with fun, easy activities, including letters to and from Santa.
www.claus.com: Another cheery site with nice drawings, claus.com has flash graphics of animated elves making toys, as well as a “Santa spotter” on the big night.
www.santaclaus.com: A simpler site, without fancy animation or drawings, this one includes lists of Santa’s favorite books, Christmas traditions around the world, and Christmas carols, crafts and fun ideas.
www.noradsanta.com: For the 50th year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (that’s right — the people who deploy missiles) tracks Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve. They use radar, satellites, “Santa Cams” and fighter jets to follow the sleigh.
www.santaspeaking.com: A fun site that lets children e-mail Santa or read his blog, santaspeaking.com also has jokes, dress-an-elf, North Pole weather reports and more.
www.santa.net: Thinner than some of the other sites, this one lets visitors make a Christmas list, play games, send in a photo of their own Christmas decorations, and has a history of Santa, a.k.a. Saint Nicholas.
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