Christmas with your computer
When you think of Christmas it’s unlikely that your computer, tablet, or smartphone will come to mind. With its interior of microchips and circuits, and its cold exterior, a computer does not lend itself to a season of fellowship, peace and love. However, despite its apparent contradictions, your computer and an internet connection could actually play a useful and entertaining role in your Christmas festivities.
You could tape some ornaments and ribbons to the computer to give it a holiday look but a more effective way is to change the Windows desktop or background to a festive picture. If you decide to do this you should stick to reputable sites that will NOT require you to download any programs or viewers, which may contain unwanted spyware.
Two good places to look for holiday-themed pictures are Kate.net’s Christmas section (http://www. kate.net/holidays/christmas/wallpaper.html) and Microsoft’s huge collection of wallpapers at its help site (https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/17780). Microsoft has instructions for setting a picture as wallpaper but essentially you right click on an image and select Set As Background. When the holidays are over you can pick any picture on your computer or at a website and use the same process to change the background.
It’s an understatement to say that Christmas is popular on the internet. A simple Google search for Christmas will yield more than 2 billion hits, which is 500 million more than last year. The problem is that a huge proportion of those websites are crass commercial affairs intent on selling you something or assaulting you with advertising.
Luckily there is an ample number of sites to keep kids entertained during the days leading up to Christmas morning. The trick is in finding them. Claus.com (www.claus.com/village.php) has numerous things for children to do, such as making an unorthodox treat like a wormy apple, or printing a personalized elf diploma. There is a retail store at the site but a warning screen alerts kids to the necessity of being escorted by a parent in order to enter.
NorthPole.com (www.northpole.com) is divided into sections for kids, parents and teachers and is a goldmine of entertaining and often very educational activities. The site exists mainly on donations from visitors, although the Toy Store has links to retail toys in various categories.
Back in 1955 a department store’s ad listed the wrong phone number for Santa Claus and led to the creation of the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Santa Tracker (www.noradsanta.org). Since then the annual NORAD Tracks Santa program has evolved from a radio and television activity on Christmas Eve to a very sophisticated Internet site supplemented with apps for Apple, Android, and Windows tablets and phones. Besides the Christmas Eve world map displaying Santa’s exact location, the site includes numerous activities for the days leading up to Christmas including interactive games.
Most young people use a tablet rather than a laptop and it has been reported that more apps are downloaded for iPads and Android devices on Christmas day than on any other occasion. Many apps are free but come with advertising and others allow a child with a single tap to make in-app purchases to buy upgrades or additional features, which has wrought financial havoc for some parents.
A good parental idea is to turn off in-app purchasing. Instructions for doing this on an iPad or iPhone are at the Apple site (http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht6088) and for Android devices visit the Digital Trends website (http:// tinyurl.com/ydbpe8vy).
Christmas carols seem to be necessity of the season and a tablet or phone can stream hours of uninterrupted carols. All you need is a home wi-fi connection and a Christmas carol app. One popular app is Xmas Radio which is free for Android, iPad, and iPhone devices and has about 50 music stations in various genres. The app displays ads but you’ll probably be listening to the carols and not looking at the screen.
As expected, there is a Santa Claus Twitter page at https://twitter.com/santa__claus or @santa__ claus, although I was suspicious about the numerous Facebook Santa pages.
Happy holidays, hi-tech or traditional.