Santa's Helper Blog: Christmas Eve

Monday, December 7, 2009

Here's a message from Santa!


	Chocolate Chip, Sugar, or Snicker Doodle? Wondering what kind of cookies Santa would like on Christmas Eve? Wondering if you made the Naughty or Nice List? Ask him personally! A live phone call from SantaSpeaking.com offers the newest, most exciting and memorable way to talk to Santa! When Santa calls, Santa will know everything Santa Claus should know… right down to the details! Schedule your LIVE highly personalized phone call with Santa Claus today—just like Katie Couric, Rachael Ray, and Charlie Gibson did!
We sincerely thank the more than 10 million visitors to Northpole.com during 2008 and to all of you who sent emails of thanks and appreciation for our site. It has truly been an honor to entertain you for the last twelve years. We hope to always be able to provide you with an enriched Christmas experience through a totally child-safe, innovative, imaginative, and yet traditional holiday website.

So, are you ready for some Christmas magic? We're ready for you at www.northpole.com, where you'll find hours of free activities and family entertainment! Just look at what's waiting for you in Santa's Secret Village:
	Games, Games, Games! With help from my elves Sally and Gwendolyn, children can learn while playing our newest games: Tell Time and Count Money. Don't miss Cheery Checkers, where you can play against me (Santa) in a challenging game of checkers. I see that many of you are practicing your holiday decorating ideas playing Trim the Tree, and enjoying a cyberspace snowfall with Build a Snowman!

	Birthday Cards from Santa! Only at the Northpole! This is just one of the free treats Santa has in his bag, and it celebrates each child's own special daywhatever time of year it comes. Parents, come register children to receive a birthday e-card from Santa. Just go to Santa's Mailroom and register the child's name, birth date, and email address. Remember, your information is safe with us. Northpole.com follows a strict privacy policy and does not share personally identifiable information with third parties.

	Narrated story telling Select from over 20 stories and enjoy reading along while the story is read by one of Santa's elves.

	NORAD Follow Santa this Chrismas Eve via Northpole.com and our direct pipeline with the NORAD Santa Tracker. Throughout the day Dec. 24, just click our direct link to to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) for a satellite view of Santa's travels.

	What's Cookin'? Our recipe quick-search and metric conversion table make it a snap to find and make favorites, like that special pumpkin cookie recipe everyone is raving about. Also, be sure to submit your favorite recipe online for consideration in Mrs. Claus' Cookbook.

	Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter Thousands of children have played Santa's Count Money game throughout 2004, proving that learninghow to count coins and dollars and make changereally is child's play!

A quick list to your all-time favorites—all free!

	Santa's Good Deeds Calendar Our very popular Good Deeds Calendars encourage good behavior throughout the year. A gentle reminder of the spirit of Christmas all year long, the calendars are a great way to give children a sense of accomplishment. Post them on the refrigerator or in your child's bedroom. Each day children check off achievements, and on Christmas Eve they can leave calendars under the tree to show Santa just how good they've been.

	Personalized Stories to Print Personalize a story for a special child. Select from 3 original northpole.com stories and complete a simple form with the child's name, hometown, favorite toy/activity/dessert, and best friend's name. The story presents your child as the star character! Printed stories make a great gift from Grandma or Grandpa. Kids love them!

	Elf Pal Academy An animated classroom offers more than 90 different fun and festive activities for youngsters, including mazes, connect-the-dots, counting, concentration, sound recognition, word search, math riddles, and more! Activities can be just for fun or incorporated into lesson plans.

	Disco Dancing Santa Disco Dancing Santa has brought giggles to many and is sure to delight you, too. Help Santa find his groove to holiday disco music, then share the fun by emailing him to family and friends.

	Letters to Santa Northpole.com provides children a quick, secure, and certain means to write Santa AND get a reply letter within two days.

	Animated Postcards Our postcards are still an all-time favorite and a quick way to send friends and family a personal holiday note.

Well, I'm off to the Workshop to test some new toys...
	Love,

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Twice as nice: Gifts that benefit nonprofits

Image via CrunchBase

With all the hoopla about "going green" why not focus your Christmas buying this year on a more PC type of gifting. Why not give a gift that also gives to a charity or non-profit a portion of the money. In that way, both you, the buyer, and the recipient will feel good about the gift.

It's a win-win situation all the way around and you will be helping out charities that may be really struggling to make ends meet in this recession. Merry Christmas!

___________________________________________________________________

BY GLENN GARVIN

ggarvin@MiamHerald.com

It's the central contradiction of the holidays: saving the world vs. looting the malls.
The second half of the equation is powerful even to the most humanitarian-minded of us, which is why you're reading a holiday gift guide right now instead of a book by Gandhi or St. Thomas Aquinas.
But these days it's not necessarily an either-or proposition: There are a growing number of gifts that multi-task, serving avarice and humanity at the same time. As Greyston Bakery's Joanne Jordan says of her company's Do-Goodie Brownies: ``With the purchase of one brownie, you can not only gratify a chocoholic who you love, but help out people who really need it, all for one low price.''

In the case of Do-Goodie Brownies, the price really is low: $2.49, with profits going to a foundation that supports job training, healthcare, housing and childcare for the poor.
If Mr. Scrooge had had options like this, those ghosts could have spent Christmas Eve snug in their coffins.
• The most versatile option is an online marketplace called GoodShop.com, which has partnered with more than 80,000 nonprofits in a program that kicks back a percentage of gift prices to the charity or cause of your choice. Buy a $60 electric football game from Back to Basic Toys and 4 percent of the price goes to your chosen nonprofit.
• Adding a charitable dimension to holiday-gift-giving can be politically tricky. Even if Aunt Agatha secretly wants to projectile-vomit at the sight of a chartreuse sweater you misguidedly gave her, she'll probably just smile and say thanks. But if she's an NRA member and finds out part of the sweater's price went to Handgun Control, your eggnog party could get a little loud. Avoid controversy with a gift card from GlobalGiving.com.
Available in denominations from $10 up to the amount of the Powerball jackpot you hit last night and don't know what to do with, GlobalGiving's card allows the recipient to direct their donation to any of hundreds of causes of every ideological stripe, from relief projects for the victims of Russian intervention in Georgia to the prevention of gender violence in Kenya.
• Another way to avoid controversy is to choose a gift that helps fight a disease -- as politically polarized as America is, almost nobody favors diseases. And it's harder to imagine an illness that everybody wants to get rid of more than cancer. The insurance company AFLAC sells a plush stuffed-toy version of its duck mascot (a small one for $10, large for $15) at Macy's and aflacholidayduck.com; 100 percent of the price goes to pediatric cancer hospitals, including the Miami Children's Hospital.
• Fashion designer and cancer survivor Sheridan Savio has created a line of clips -- hair bands, pony-tail holders, even little pacifier clips bearing a smiling angel -- that sell for $7-$24, with 20 percent of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society (clips4acure.com).
• The Alzheimer's Foundation of America has a line of sterling silver jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets and stickpins, all for $30 and all including the organization's hands-and-heart logo that honors Alzheimer's caregivers (alzfdn.org).
• The Diabetes Research Institute (diabetesresearch.org) is trying to pun its way to a cure with $10 ``I'm Tired Of Diabetes'' bracelets made from old auto tires.
• For $40, you can adopt an endangered whale from the Oceanic Society, complete with a certificate and photo. If a whale won't fit under your tree, go with a dolphin for the same price (oceanicsociety.org).
• The $20 teddy bears on sale at the Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove benefit Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters), a charity with orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean.