Santa Letter 2.0: How Technology is Bringing Santa to Life for Kids

Santa and technology are not two things that immediately seem to go together. Santa has been the ultimate luddite; 1500 years old and he never even upgraded to a motorized vehicle, for pete's sake. But this year Santa is getting his geek on with some fun hi-tech tools and social media solutions that bring the jolly old elf to life for kids.

Check out how technology has upgraded Santa Claus this year:

Vmail Santa
Instead of doing a face to face or sending a snail mail to Santa, this Holiday kids can send Santa a video mail on TokBox.com. All you need is a web cam and an internet connection and your kids can record a message that will be sent directly to Santa. For every video sent to Santa Claus between December 10-25th, TokBox will donate 5 cents to Child Foundation, which supports children around the world.

Twitter Santa
Follow Santa on twitter and you can get up to the minute reports about his preparations news from the North Pole, like the elves' progress making all those Wiis and iPods. With your own twitter account you can also send santa personal messages and you'll probably get a reply!

Track Santa with NORAD
At NoradSanta.org you can track Santa as he makes his way around the world bringing toys and goodies in his sleigh. Norad is the North American Rapid Air Defense (or something like that) and finally it's being put to good use - protecting American children from the threat of not believing in Santa.

Capture Santa
Capturethemagic.com is a website that allows you to upload a photo of your living room and place Santa into the image from one of over 200 poses so that you can prove to any little skeptics that Santa did indeed visit your home and it wasn't you that ate those cookies. This would be a lot cooler if it didn't cost $10 (for the first image. $.99 for additional shots),

Santa Email
Vonage is bringing Santa to life with their Call Santa program. Kids just call 1-700-CALLSANTA and leave a message with their Christmas wishes for Santa Claus and the message will be emailed right back to mom and dad, (who can forward it straight to grandma and grandpa).

As a bonus, Vonage will grant the wish of 10 children, delivering a toy from their list in Santa's name. Find out more at http://vonage.com/santa. This program is only for Vonage customers.

Check out our Holiday Guide for more cool Holiday fun.