Merry Christmas

The first few items in this week’s column are just for fun. The last one could turn out to be really helpful. I hope you enjoy them all!

Listen to some Christmas music

For a great big dose of Christmas nostalgia, listen to Christmas Vinyl (http://christmasvinyl.com/) where they are playing real vinyl Christmas records made by Nat King Cole, Mitch Miller and Perry Como, to name just a few. Christmas Vinyl is also on Facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/christmasvinyl.

For a more diverse selection, try Accuradio’s Holiday selection: http://www.accuradio.com/#!/holidays/. You have a lot of control over what you hear there. You can select more than one genre and mix them to create you own “channel.” And you can skip a tune or ban an artist completely from your channel.

TuneIn Radio has a good selection of traditional and internet stations streaming Christmas music. Take a look at that here: http://tunein.com/search/?query=christmas.

Photo: Contributed

Track Santa

NORAD has been tracking Santa on Christmas Eve since the 1950’s (where a lot of that Christmas Vinyl comes from). These days, you can follow Santa on the NORAD Tracks Santa website at http://www.noradsanta.org/en/. On Christmas Eve, you’ll see videos of Santa as he delivers presents to children all over the world.

Stop by before Christmas Eve to check out the rest of the site. Games, activities, and lots of fun facts about Santa. Check out the “Sleigh Technical Data” section of the FAQ, for instance: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/faq.html.

Oh yes, of course NORAD Tracks Santa has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/noradsanta, a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/NoradSanta and apps for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8. Santa and his reindeer can pretty much forget about privacy.

Enjoy an adult beverage

If tracking Santa turns out to be simply an incentive for the young ones to go to bed, or if you don’t have any young ones to worry about, Christmas Eve is a fine time to try out one (or more) of these recipes for Classic Christmas Cocktails. There are five such recipes here: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/5-classic-christmas-cocktails.htm ranging from Egg Nog to a classic Champagne Cocktail. (I’ve wondered what a Champagne Cocktail was since the very first time I say “Casablanca.” Now I know: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/5-classic-christmas-cocktails4.htm) Learn how to make Mulled Cider with or without the spirits, the Martha Stewart way: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/5-classic-christmas-cocktails2.htm.

Read the Manual

Let’s just say that for whatever reason you need to assemble something besides an adult beverage on Christmas Eve. Let’s just say that you can’t, for whatever reason, figure it out. You can download free user manuals for all kinds of things at Manuals Online: http://www.manualsonline.com/. The site claims to have over 300,000 manuals, and I hope it includes the ones you need. Searching is very easy. Good luck!

Here’s wishing you a joyous Holiday Season!
 

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