For hundreds of years, little kids have tried to stay awake at night to catch Santa Claus. These attempts usually end with the children falling asleep and missing him because he is, after all, magic. But what if you could set up your video camera before going to bed and wake up in the morning with a video of him delivering presents? Wouldn’t your kids be amazed?

Well, now you can catch Santa in your house. With The Santa Video, you simply need to upload a picture of your home where Santa will be visiting, select from several available video clips and they make the magic happen. Your kids can wake up Christmas morning and see a video of Santa delivering gifts and eating cookies right in their own home!

It’s easy and only takes a few minutes. But parents should pay attention to the details in the videos so they can make a few preparations before Christmas. For instance, Santa is shown eating chocolate chip cookies in the videos, so you’ll want to be sure you actually leave out chocolate chip cookies rather than another type on Christmas Eve. Very little kids won’t notice this detail, but older ones will. In some of the other clips you can choose, Santa takes a variety of packages out of his bag. Your child will be really amazed if one of their favorite gifts is in a box wrapped like one of the packages shown in the video. (Of course, you can always say the other packages shown in the video were for kids at other houses.)

Your kids will love seeing Santa in your house. And you won’t even need to leave the camcorder running all night!

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This fun video features the song Santa’s Stuck Up in the Chimney, by Paul Evans. Maybe it’s time for Santa to take a hint – it’s time to lay off the milk and cookies.

If you’ve been wondering how to tell your kids about Santa, HubPages author lisa42 has some suggestions.

The mom of two kids recently had to ‘fess up to her son and let him know that Santa Claus as we think of him today is only a myth. But she eased the blow by emphasizing what an amazing impact the historical Saint Nicholas, who lived during the fourth century, has had on millions of people around the world. One man has inspired millions to be generous and kind for centuries.

The article offers the following advice for talking to your kids about Santa Claus:

Make sure they’re ready to know the truth – The first time my son asked about Santa, I responded by saying, “What do you think?” At that point, he was still a firm believer, so I waited until he asked again and showed signs of disbelief to explain the entire story. If your child is still on the fence and you want to keep the magic alive as long as possible, you can also check out some ways to keep your child believing in Santa.

1) Tell your child about Saint Nicholas – Let your child know that the real Santa was a man who lived long ago, but he was so kind and generous to others, especially children, that we still follow his example.

2) Talk about the meaning of Christmas – Both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ offer many lessons during the holiday season, so you can use either or both, depending on your religion, to remind your child of the meaning behind Christmas

3) Make them feel honored to keep the secret – Safeguarding Santa’s secret is an important task that is only entrusted to those who are old enough to understand the importance of keeping the secret from littler children.

You can read the full article on HubPages for more thoughts on how to tell your child about Santa Claus.

Just as Santa knows what every girl and boy wants for Christmas and brings different gifts for different kids, he also knows that a letter from Santa Claus is a special gift where a “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work. That’s why there are a variety of companies available on the web to make sure you get the Santa letter that’s perfect for your child. Here are three of the best Santa letter sites, all of which offer something special that you won’t find at the others.

Best Santa Letter Site If You Like Options (Lots of ‘Em!)

If you’re the kind of person who likes options, then you’ll love Santa’s Official North Pole Mail. With 20 background designs and more than 40 Santa letters to choose from, including the ability to write your own letter, you’ll never have to worry about two kids in your family having letters that are too similar. And if you want to accessorize your letter, they have options for that, too, with an a la carte menu of upgrades such as Santa evidence kits, Nice List certificates, magic snow and other fun stuff.

Best Santa Letter Site For “Over the Top” Extravagance

If you’re willing to spend money on your child’s Santa “letter,” Package from Santa will turn it into a complete package that goes far beyond anything you’ll get from a company that sells plain ol’ letters. Their Platinum Package is a colorful box of goodies that will impress any child. Inside the box your child will discover magic North Pole snow, an autographed photo of Santa, a sugar cookie from Mrs. Claus in a gift tin, a letter from Rudolph, a personalized Nice List certificate, a Santa Claus window decal, a piece of St. Nick’s suit, magic reindeer food in a tin and, last but not least, a personalized Santa letter. They also include a free video greeting from Santa.

Best Santa Letter Site for Printable Variety

This is a great site for Do-it-Yourself-ers. Rather than just offering the standard printable letter from Santa Claus, as most sites offering print-at-home letters do, Printable Santa Letters.com goes the extra mile and allows you to print extras such as a Nice List certificate, an autographed photo of Santa Claus, and a personalized letter from Rudolph, as well as the standard personalized letter and envelope. They also give you plenty of options for the type of letter you want to send. You can select from eight different letter options, including special letters for baby’s first Christmas and a child’s first year in kindergarten, as well as six background designs, including a Christian theme that goes well with the Christian letter option.

All of these sites offer something that qualifies them as the “best Santa letter sites” for someone’s needs, and all of them can also be considered the best Santa letter sites for another reason – they will all bring a smile to your child’s face.

Adapted with permission from Best Santa Letter Sites by Type

Having one of Santa Claus’ “scout” elves visit during the Christmas season has become a popular Christmas tradition for many families since Elf on the Shelf was published in 2005. Since then, the children’s story written by Carol Aebersold and her daughters, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, has sold more than 2 million copies. Now kids who love the story of these special elves who help Santa knows who’s naughty and who’s nice can get a chance to see a special movie featuring the special elves.

“Elf on the Shelf: An Elf’s Story” will be aired on CBS on November 25, 2011 and “An Elf’s Story” DVD will go on sale the next day. The 23-minute special will be broadcast on November 25, and the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the special will be available the next day. According to the official Elf on the Shelf and CBS websites, “The Elf on the Shelf: An Elf’s Story” will star Chippey, one of Santa Claus’ scout elves. Chippey’s job is to visit little kids and report to Santa Claus on their behavior so St. Nick knows who has been naughty and who has been nice. Chippey is assigned to a family with a young boy named Taylor McTuttle. The CBS press release says Taylor “struggles to believe in the magic of Christmas.” Chippey’s job is not only to report on the boy’s behavior, but to restore his faith in Christmas magic, too. But when Taylor breaks the rules, Chippey loses his magic powers.

The Elf on the Shelf website says that what happens then is “through the power of love and forgiveness, both of them learn that true belief cannot be taught.” CBS says the special carries the “timeless message that Christmas is something we carry in our hearts.”

Look for Elf on the Shelf: An Elf’s Story on CBS later this year!

As Christmas approaches every year, children work extra hard to make sure they’re on Santa’s Nice List. The fear of finding coal in your stocking rather than great toys and gifts under the Christmas tree is enough to keep most kids on their best behavior. Hopefully, that behavior continues after the holidays, and one great way to both recognize good behavior and encourage it all year long is to make sure your kids know they’re on Santa’s Nice List.

Here are some ways to show your kids that their good behavior has paid off.

The easiest way to let your children know they’ve made it to Santa’s Nice List is to send a personalized letter from Santa Claus with a Nice List certificate enclosed. You can get Nice List certificates from most companies selling Santa letters, or you can save money by creating your own printable Santa letters and Santa’s Nice List certificate at home. Creating your own personalized letters from Santa Claus ensures that St. Nick will say exactly the right things. It also gives you control over when and how Santa’s letter arrives.

Another way to make sure your children know they’ve made it to Santa’s Nice List is to send a free Santa message video in which Santa shows who is on his Nice List. You can can create a free video from Santa at Portable North Pole.

You can also surprise your kids with their own personalized Santa’s Nice List Christmas tree ornaments from Zazzle. Santa loves to leave these special ornaments on Christmas morning when he delivers all the other gifts for good girls and boys.

Kids will love getting these extra goodies from Santa. They remind your kids that Santa always knows when they’ve been bad or good, so hopefully they’ll continue to be good, for goodness sake.

If you have kids who believe in Santa Claus, Portable North Pole.tv is a site you shouldn’t miss. This site lets you create free Santa videos personalized with your child’s name, age, location and other details. You can even upload a profile picture and up to two other photos that Santa will show when he’s looking in his Naughty and Nice List. And if your kids need a reminder to always be polite or to share with others, Santa’s got you covered; the site allows you to select from a list of behaviors and indicate whether your child needs improvement or some words of encouragement for already doing a great job.

This is the third year the site has been offering their amazing free videos, and they’ve added some new features this year. They’re now offering messages for specific user categories (toddlers, young kids or adults), more personalization according to each person’s profile and an application for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

This is also the first year Portable North Pole.tv will be allowing you to purchase a permanent copy of the video. (Right now, the site is still saying this feature will be available soon.) There’s no obligation to buy a copy, and if you choose not to, you will still get the same high-quality video with all the personalization features the site offers.

This is one site you won’t want to miss. Visit Portable North Pole.tv to check it out.

We all know Santa lives at the North Pole, but what ELSE do you know about this cold, snowy region at the top of the earth? Here’s some trivia about the North Pole so you’ll be ready in case you ever run into Santa and he gives you a pop quiz.

How cold is it at the North Pole?
During winter, the temperature at the North Pole averages from about -45 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit (-43 to -26 degrees Celsius). During summer, the temperature climbs up to a cool 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).

If it’s noon in Tokyo, what time is it at the North Pole?
Good question. In most places on Earth, local time is determined by longitude and time of day is more-or-less synchronized to the position of the sun in the sky (for example, at midday the sun is roughly at its highest). But this method of determining time doesn’t work at the North Pole, where the sun rises and sets only once per year, and all lines of longitude (hence all time zones) converge. So there is no assigned time zone at the North Pole. (Is this why Santa can defy time and fly all around the world in a single night?)

Does the sun still rise in the east and set in the west at the North Pole?
When the sun is visible in the polar sky (during the summer months), it appears to move in a clockwise circle above the horizon. The sun rises only once and sets once every YEAR at the North Pole.

Other than Santa’s Village, what other buildings are there at the North Pole?
The South Pole has some permanent scientific outposts, but the North Pole has no permanent structures. That’s because it’s in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and is surrounded by water that is and sea ice that is always shifting.

What animals live at the North Pole?
Other than Santa’s reindeer, very few animals have ever been sighted near the North Pole. The few that have been spotted near the top of the earth include the ringed seal and Arctic foxes, as well as birds such as the Black-legged Kittiwake, the Snow Bunting, and the Northern Fulmar.

Is Santa’s North Pole the only North Pole?
In addition to the geographic North Pole, which is the northernmost point on Earth, there is also a Magnetic North Pole, as well as cities named North Pole in Alaska, New York, Idaho and Oklahoma.

Yes, Virginia, there really is a North Pole. And if Santa Claus is sending a letter to your child this year, you’ll want to be sure your envelope has one of these special marks. During the holidays, you can get a free postmark from North Pole, Alaska simply by sending your mail there and requesting the special pictorial postmark.

Many people think you need to pay a Santa letter service for this special touch, but it’s easy to do yourself. You can save money by using a Santa letter template to create your own printable Santa letter at home and then sending it to Alaska for the North Pole postmark. All you’ll need to pay is the cost of postage to and from the North Pole.

The official North Pole postmark from North Pole, AK is available every year from Thanksgiving to Christmas. There’s no additional fee for the postmark. You just need to be sure to put enough postage on your letter to get it to Alaska and back. And the service isn’t just for Santa letters – you can send any of your holiday cards and family Christmas letters here for a special touch of Christmas magic, too.

If you’d like to add a North Pole postmark to your child’s Santa letter, the process is simple. First you’ll need create your letter from Santa Claus. There are plenty of places to get great looking printable Santa letters online. Once you’ve got your letter, seal it in an envelope addressed to your child and affix regular first-class postage. Then place THAT envelope in a larger one and send it to this address:

North Pole Christmas Cancellation
Postmaster
4141 Postmark Drive
Anchorage, AK 99530-99998

The postal elves at the North Pole will open the outer envelope, stamp the inner envelope with the special North Pole, AK postmark, and send it through the regular mail service to the address on the inner envelope.

If you want to be sure not to disappoint your child, be sure to get your Santa letter in the mail by the end of the first week in December. That should ensure arrival in Anchorage no later than December 15. Letters that are received by this date should make it back to their final destination by Christmas with regular first-class postage. If you can’t get your letter to the North Pole by December 15, you’ll need to use Priority Mail on the inner envelope to make sure Santa’s letter doesn’t arrive after the holidays.

It’s always been hard to capture real Santa pictures. He has to fly at night to avoid air traffic and all those questions little kids would ask at every house if he tried to visit during the day when they were awake. And his magic reindeer are faster than the speed of sound or he’d never make it around the world in one night. So getting real pictures of Santa has traditionally been darn near impossible.

So I love this new website – Capture the Magic of Santa. Through the magic of digital technology, they can help you capture real Santa pictures right in your home. You might find St. Nick in your living room, your kitchen, perhaps even your child’s bedroom. He might even be talking to your pets or standing outside your front door. In fact, with this site you can capture photos of Santa in any room of the home you choose.

You simply upload a photo of some place in or around your home (or a photo of any location), and select from dozens of images of Santa. Then, with the miracle of modern technology, you can finally get a photo of Santa in your house to prove to your child that he really DID visit while everyone was sleeping. You might even be able to capture a photo of the jolly old elf looking over your child while he or she is snoozing. You never know!

So have some fun and check it out.

Santa Claus loves to get mail, and every year he gets letters from children all around the globe. If you’d like to encourage your kids to write to old St. Nick, here’s a free printable Dear Santa letter template you can print out.

For tips on helping your kids write a letter to Santa, try How to Write a Letter to Santa at HowToDoThings.com.

This dear Santa letter template is a .pdf file that can be printed out on standard letter-size paper with a margin. Simply click on the image, which will open in a new page, and print it or save it.

More Letter to Santa Templates:
Christmas Letter Tips.com offers a free lined Dear Santa Letter template that includes an image of Santa and a North Pole sign.

Disney’s FamilyFun offers a letter to Santa postcard with a cute red design with Santa Claus and some toys.

One of the busiest U.S. post offices during the holidays is the one in Santa Claus, Indiana. The only post office in the world named after Santa Claus post helps keep ol’ Kris Kringle’s magic alive by offering special “picture postmarks” during December.

The city has been offering a picture postmark every year since 1983. Each year’s unique postmark is designed by a local high school art student as part of an annual contest.

“The holiday postmark has become one of the most popular in the nation over the past two decades,” said Santa Claus Postmaster Marian Balbach in a 2008 USPS press release. “Postal patrons world-wide request the picture postmark. Also, many customers traditionally drive hundreds of miles to personally obtain the cancellation on their holiday mail.”

In 2008, the Santa Claus post office expected half a million pieces of mail to come through the office between November 15 and December 20. During the rest of the year, the post office processes only about 13,000 pieces of mail per month.

The postmaster offers these guidelines for individuals interested in getting a Santa postmark:

- Allow at least a two-inch by four-inch space in the stamp area for the picture postmark;
- Have postage applied to cards or letters before bringing or mailing them to the post office;
- The picture postmark is only available during the month of December;
- In order to ensure a good postmark imprint please do not enclose large or bulky items in your holiday mail (i.e.; reindeer food, snow flakes, glitter, stickers, etc.);
- There is no charge for postmarking—however there is a limit of 50 picture postmarks (hand cancellations) per person per day.

Customers who wish to have the Santa Claus Post Office mail Christmas cards should package them—with postage stamps affixed—in a sturdy envelope or box, and mail to:

Santa Claus Postmark
Postmaster
Santa Claus Station
Santa Claus, IN 47579-9998

Make sure you send your envelopes early. The post office should receive them no later than December 15 to ensure delivery to your recipients by Christmas.

Kids love Christmas and kids love coloring. So here’s a Santa coloring page that lets them enjoy both. This image shows Santa Claus holding a sign saying, “Merry Christmas.” To print it out, right click the image below and click “Print Target.” That will send the full-size image to your printer. The full-size image is larger than what you see here and will fit on an 8/12 x 11″ piece of paper. Happy holidays!

These days, images of Santa Claus usually show a jolly rotund fellow wearing a red suit, a fur-trimmed hat and black boots. This image became popular in the 19th century, due largely to political cartoonist Thomas Nast and “The Night Before Christmas” author Clement C. Moore. But behind this red-suited caricature we know so well today is a real man who lived in the third century.

Saint Nicholas was born around 280 AD in what is now Turkey. His parents were wealthy, devout Christians who died when he was little. Following Jesus’ advice to give to the poor, Nicholas gave away his entire inheritance to the poor and needy. He became the Bishop of Myra while still a young man, and continued to help those in need, particularly children. He was soon known as a protector of children and sailors.

He died December 6, 343 AD, and the anniversary of his death became Saint Nicholas Day, a day for feasting and celebrating.

The legend of Saint Nicholas was brought to the New World by Dutch setttlers. The name Santa Claus would evolve from the Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas. The saint became a part of local lore when John Pintard founded the New York Historical Society in 1804 and made St. Nicholas the patron saint of the society and New York City.

He received another boost a few years later when Washington Irving joined the society and published a work called Knickerbocker’s History of New York on Saint Nicholas Day. The work contained numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character.

But it was Clement Clark Moore’s poem, originally titled “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” but now better known as “The Night Before Christmas,” that cemented Saint Nicholas’ image as “a jolly old elf” with a “little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.” Moore reportedly wrote the poem for his family in 1822. It appeared in print a year later, in the Troy, New York Sentinel newspaper.

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast helped popularize the image Moore created. In 1863 he began drawing a series of annual cartoons for Harper’s Weekly that were based on the character in the poem and in Washington Irving’s work. Nash’s Santa has a beard, fur clothing, and a pipe, and was the basis for many Santas to follow. He was also the one to invent the North Pole, elves and Mrs. Claus.

By the 1890s, the image of Santa in a red suit and hat was so common that the Salvation Army began dressing men in Santa Claus suits and sending them into the streets of New York to solicit donations for the Christmas meals they provided for the needy. Later, other artists such as Norman Rockwell continued to popularize the image of Santa Claus as a bearded fat fellow in a red suit.

In 1931, Coca-Cola began using Santa in their advertisements and the rest, as they say, is history. Santa is now a common centerpiece of Christmas advertising. Although he still retains some small semblance to the Saint Nicholas of history who gave gifts to the needy, his transformation from an actual religious figure to a mythical secular figure has been otherwise complete.