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. This Santa letter template is a .jpg image that measures 8 x 10.5 inches so it 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.

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

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.