Santa Claus on webcam?

Some silly thoughts pass through my mind as I'm driving to work in the
morning. This morning, I found myself thinking of Santa Claus and the
problems he might face in the 21st century -- especially since kids

~\" CountryStuff \"~...

[polite snip]
Or you could let them check this out~
Keeps track of where Santa is On Christmas eve.
HTH

PerfectReign...

Don't forget NORAD...

ThePsyko...

thanks.. I always check him out via NORAD but never remember the URL..
you just saved me a web search :)

ThePsyko...

In Microsoft-land, we call them Favorites!!

PerfectReign...

He can't help it. He's a pinkie using commie SF hippie who watches Gwar
videos.

PerfectReign...

Um, well, I disagree.

In my old life, I used to work for a company who did document imaging
systems for - among other things - Universities. I had SFSU, SDSU, CSUN,
CSULB and CSU Fresno as some of my clients.

Lemme tell you - going to SDSU was FAR AND AWAY better than going to SFSU
in terms of the - um - scenery.

Rev Turd Fredericks...

I bet UCI has them all beat :-)

ThePsyko...

Thankfully I don't have to deal with State... ;)

PerfectReign...

You kidding? They're great chick magnets. Almost as good as dogs or babies.

I'm surprised your wife lets you go on campus with one.

By the way, I thought of you three times this morning on the way into
work. First I passed a VW Pickup truck. It had a VW Bus front-end with a
truck backend.

Then I saw not one - but two - light blue VW beetles. One guy had
converted his to include a third brake light. Both still had the yellow on
blue plates.

So, when you gonna doctor yours up, and install a built-in WiFi receiver,
GPS unit, DVD nav, and voice activation?

Hans van Eynsbergen...

I shall not disclose the level of magnetism that my car produces...

Rev Turd Fredericks...

Heh. Show off.

ThePsyko...

lol!! Eat SUS babeeeee!!!!!

could leave their webcams on in an attempt to catch him in the act and
prove that he really does exist. What would you do if your kids said
to you, "Daddy, can you leave the webcam on so we can see Santa when he
comes?"

Vandar...

I'd say "No".

Now, I should say that I have two adorable nieces (my wife's sister's
daughters) who are ages four and two. The oldest one has just reached
the age where she knows about Santa and his yearly visits, and she has
been mesmerized by all of the Rankin-Bass Christmas TV specials as
they've aired on TV this year. She can barely contain her excitement
about Christmas and the presents she's going to get. So this morning,
I got to thinking: What if we got Mommy and Daddy to turn on the webcam
and record Santa's visit for the girls?

Unfortunately, my sister-in-law isn't enough of a Net geek to even have
a webcam; and if I offered to let her borrow mine, she'd most likely
refuse because she knows very little about it. So alas, we won't have
the opportunity to record Santa's visit this year. But even so, I
thought about ways to make this happen as I drove to work this morning.
So here's my suggestion to you: maybe YOU could surprise your kids by
recording Santa on your webcam.

Here's what to do: First, you'll need a Santa suit (or a relative
wearing a Santa suit), a webcam, and a recording program. Set up the

joni...

C'mon now, most kids could pick out a fake Santa even on a webcam! My
kids were pretty savvy and realized all the mall Santas cant be the
REAL one, so then they all became 'Santas helpers' because he cant be
everywhere right? ;-)

ThePsyko...

Better than some southern california illegal alien hiring smog producing
wanna-be surfer dude who spends his days bleaching his hair!

ThePsyko...

hey! Hippy chicks are hot!

PerfectReign...

I'll be sure and tell that to Mrs. Rev....

...seriously, I bet they just love you know as you pull up in your ultra

ThePsyko...

No kidding.. it would probably go over better at UCB

Rev Turd Fredericks...

See my reply to PR :-)

retro beatle.

Rev Turd Fredericks...

I'll have you know that a very salubrious young lady came up to me in a
parking lot today and said "Nice car!" and proceeded to engage me in a
30 minute conversation about the merits of VW Beetles. Turns out she
owns a hot pink 1968 VW convertible. I didn't realize the Beetle would
be a chick magnet :-) They certainly were'nt when I used to drive them
back in the early 1980's.

Part of the 'hook' of Santa and other imaginary childhood fantasies
(tooth fairy, easter bunny etc) is the mystery (aka imagination) behind
the how/when and where.
One of the biggest hits with my kids was the year we used some
leftover spray snow (we had stenciled the windows with snowflakes)
which somehow they forgot about when we used it to spray a wide path to
the Christmas tree and made his bootprints going up to it (but not back
because he vanished after he dropped off the presents right?). They
wouldnt let me vacuum for weeks afterwards! "Noooooo thats Santas
footprints!', they'd wail! Hehehe. Of course Santa also got a plate of
cookies and milk (or was it a sandwich and a beer one year? LoL!) and
the reindeer some carrot sticks that mom and dad ended up nibbling on -
we had a small plastic Rudolph with a teeny litebulb red nose that you
could leave on overnite next to the goodies left for Santa (and of
course the tree lights stayed on all nite so Santa wouldnt trip in the
dark!)
Keep to the traditions, forget the webcam idea!

cam at an angle so that it can capture most of the view of your living
room and Christmas tree -- but not the entire room, so that there are

ThePsyko...

~\" CountryStuff \"~...

YaY!

Won't be any Vista here.. just like there's no IE7 :)

JM...

Same here, no IE7 or Vista. ;p

still areas where people could sneak around without being caught on
camera.

Place the kids' gifts in a couple of sacks (pillowcases and laundry
bags should suffice). You may want to ensure that the kids sleep
through this little show, so be sure to give them turkey sandwiches and
maybe a sip of wine (if you agree with the idea of kids having a
special sip of wine on Christmas), to ensure they fall fast asleep.

Warhol...

Boozing up the kids, eh? I just use that to shut 'em up any old time.

-L....

Yeah, boozing them up and lying to them too. What great parenting!

Set up and test the webcam, and show the kids that you're going to
sneak a picture of Santa for them.

Wait until the appropriate time -- it doesn't have to be *too* late in

ThePsyko...

We usually do the NORAD Santa Tracker....

~\" CountryStuff \"~...

Yes that one also...lots of them *<:o)}}}}}

the evening; maybe an hour or so after the kids are asleep. And when
the time comes, you get to put on a show for them. You can record
Santa sneaking into the house (through the front door, that is -- after
all, he has a special golden skeleton key that can open any lock),
bringing his sack to the Christmas tree, and unloading it. (He may
have to take two or three trips, if you're the type of family who
lavishes your kids with tons of presents at Christmas!) Of course,
since Santa loves his work, he will be jolly and happy as he unloads
his pack. Then, just as he is ready to leave, Santa can suddenly
notice the webcam and come take a close look at it...and laugh with
delight, realizing that he is on camera. Finally, in a move that will
really blow your kids' minds, Santa would then take a couple of candy
canes out of his coat, show them to the camera, and sneak off-camera
towards the kids' rooms. After a minute or so, he comes back in sight
of the camera, waves happily, and exits out the front door.

When the kids wake up the next morning, they would find candy canes
under their pillows. And when you play back the webcam and they see
Santa in their own living room, they should be excited and joyful in a
way that you yourself will remember for the rest of your life. :)

And be sure to upload the video to YouTube!