The Internet has made Christmas more Santa-friendly in a variety of ways. One of the best uses for the so-called information superhighway is that a parent can do all of the holiday shopping online, to be delivered in discrete brown boxes. As any parent knows, stashing the kid (or kids) is the hardest part about last-minute shopping, when all of the kids are on break from school. This applies only to the haphazard parents who didn’t get it done earlier, didn’t have someone else do it for them, or else work all day anyway and therefore can shop secretly only on their lunch break.
No, the ones who have kids spilling out of the car at gas stations, who never turn the videos back in on time and, of course, can’t manage to get all of that holiday shopping done to ensure maximum surprise when it comes to open those presents need the Internet the most.
But there is yet another benefit to the Internet. Santa lives there. If you have a precocious child who hasn’t settled upon the idea of whether Santa is real or not and they know how to use Google? You might want to have “that talk” with them ASAP. Why? Because the Internet is an easy font of information. Any question you want to ask can be answered within nanoseconds. If you have a kid who’s too young to know anything about Google, like a kindergartner perhaps? Santa online is a nifty device to get the little one in the spirit of the season.
Typing Santa into Google brings up a few supposed “official” Santa sites. The North Pole is the first one that comes up (Northpole.com). At first I thought, what’s the gimmick? Where are all of the Google ads? But they post this message at the outset:
“North Pole is a commercial banner-free, child-safe Web site designed to provide a family-oriented Christmas site for children and families to share together. Parents, grandparents, and teachers around the world have told us about the quality time they spend sharing the site with children. We hope you, too, enjoy the site as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.”
There has to be something in it for someone somewhere. However, very few people do this for free. A quick clickety-click takes you into a toyshop, and what do you know? It links back to Amazon.com where the kid can buy the thing immediately with the mommy or daddy’s “one-click” ordering.
Still, those Amazon links can’t really pay the bills and North Pole has more going for it than the toyshop, like writing a letter to Santa, for instance. Kids can also create their own storybook and send birthday cards. Northpole.com, therefore, is highly recommended.
Next up there is the aptly named Santa.com. That is laden with Google ads and it doesn’t get nearly the amount of traffic that North Pole gets. It just goes to show you that the URL isn’t everything; content matters more.
The Internet isn’t just good for shopping – it’s a great way to spread a little holiday magic for a few moments. And if you help the kids write their letters to Santa you’ll find out everything their hearts desire – as if you didn’t know already
