Need Santa? There's An App For That

I don't need to tell you that it might be handy to be able to program calls from Santa into your phone, for when you want to remind the kids that he knows when they're naughty or nice. Or to be able to pull, right out of your pocket, video to show a fidgety preschooler what Santa is doing right this minute, the better to point out that if he can feed his reindeers in a snowstorm, we can eat our carrots, right?

Call From Santa is exactly what it sounds like: it's an app that allows you to program personalized calls from Santa. You choose a pre-recorded message, select your child's name and the time. Then you just tell little Emily that Santa is going to be calling to check in on her and let Santa do the rest.

Santa Live! is a series of short, charming CGI-animated videos that show what Santa is up to in in the days before Christmas - none of which show him calling kids on his iPhone, but you can gloss over that.

Both are wonderful distractions for those days when the children are jacked up on gingerbread and nagging you to count down the remaining days until Christmas, again. I use them daily. Sometimes hourly. -Catherine

Call From Santa and Santa Live! are available at the App Store.