www.santa.com/

e-mail Santa, fun and games, holiday fun and more.

www.northpole.com/

Santa's Workshop - read and color exciting stories about the toys in the workshop, sound clips and music.

www.christmas.com/

Christmas traditions from around the world, Christmas fun and music.

www.santas.net/

Christmas traditions, carols, legends, stories and Christmas facts.

Ozkidz Christmas

Oz Kidz Christmas Down Under - includes lots of Christmas related links.

Yahoo's Christmas

Links to virtually everything you ever wanted to know about Christmas including history, clipart, music, recipes, virtual Christmas cards etc etc.

Joyful Notes: The Music of Christmas Carols

From the Mining Company - lyrics and midi files.

An Online Christmas Songbook

With lyrics and sheet music for many carols.

12 Days of Christmas

Downloadable .wav versions of the Twelve Days in traditional, blues, gospel and country styles.

Yahoo's Christmas

Midi files section

Free.xmas Clipart

Looking for some clip art for Christmas? Try this site. Lots of links to Christmas related cilpart free for personal use.

Christmas Graphics and Clip Art

From Yahoo's links.

Addressing Christmas Cards?

Addressing Christmas Cards for snail-mail:

Telstra's white pages

The Yellow Pages

Area codes:

Australia Post

Credit Cards & Christmas...

Purchasing Christmas items over the `net need not be too scary. Simply observe a few simple precautions and, as always, CHECK YOUR CREDIT CARD STATEMENTS CLOSELY.

1. Try where possible to purchase from reputable sites and businesses;
2. Most reputable sites will give you alternatives like faxing or phoning in your credit card details, or give details for direct deposits;
3. Using "Secure" Forms or Servers offers some protection;
4. Have a separate credit card with the lowest credit limit you can get, and only transfer funds into it immediately before using it.

Check with your bank or credit card provider for information on what you can do in the event of credit card fraud. Progressive Financial Institutions these days are on their customers side.

Lastly, to avoid an unpleasant start to the New Year - don't over-spend!

Going to be away for Christmas?

Christmas holidays should be a time to relax and have fun away from your normal routine. If you're going away you may not wish to lay eyes on a computer until your return ;-)

Give some thought to your e-mail before you go. Some people (seriously) suffer e-mail withdrawal, others have uncollectable amounts of mail pile up while they're away!

While some people do establish email accounts with the likes of Hotmail, Excite and Yahoo, that can be checked from any Internet Cafe, there is an increasing chance you'll end up with a mail box full of commercial junk mail, and very little of what you actually wanted. So take a break, have a holiday. Take a few moments before you go to reduce the amount of likely mail and then forget about it until your return.

• If at all possible, advise your e-mail contacts you will be away and probably not in a position to return email for a while. Tell them not to send you any large items of e-mail while you're away!
• Mailing list subscribers should check to see whether their Mailing List supports a "Vacation" option, and how to use it; otherwise "un-subscribe" to your mailing list(s) and re-subscribe on your return (check the List home site for details on how to "un-subscribe"). Many mailing lists keep archives which you can search for any catch-up items you may have missed while away - check them out.

Above all, have a happy and safe holiday. The Christmas break will be over all too soon. Make the most of it!

Remember that when you return, as long as you are using a conventional email program (eg Eudora) rather than a web based one (eg Hotmail) you only need to be connected to the net to collect your mail (and send it). You can read and write replies to your e-mail off-line at your leisure, and simply re-connect to send your replies.

Happy Holidays!