Look out U.S. Postal Service, here come faster, stamp-free ways for kids to send their good list certificate letters to the North Pole. They're Internet sites that let kids tell St. Nick what they want for the holidays in a flash.
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One of them is Santa's Secret Village, where children can write and receive letters from St. Nicholas all in a matter of days. It's one of at least 50 Christmas Internet sites that have popped up during the holidays just in time for the letter-writing crunch.
For the second year, the animated Santa's Secret Village will give thousands of children the chance to e-mail letters to Santa and receive personal responses in two days. Kids also can download black-and-white artwork to color, read elf stories and bake naughty list certificate goodies from recipes listed on the site.
``What we wanted to do is create an environment and engage a child, where I can sit with my child and read stories and create pictures,'' said co-creator Neal Starkey, who uses the site to spend quality time with his 4-year-old son.
Looking to provide their children with creative entertainment during the holidays, Starkey, his partner Jim Clutter and a group of others at Northpole.com in Marietta, Ga., created the site two years ago.
Last year, the site had more than 15 million hits and received about 100,000 Santa letters. This year, the site went up just before Thanksgiving and is averaging about 20,000 visitors a day. The visits usually dwindle down after Jan. 1, Starkey said.
While the post office, which receives thousands of Santa letters each Christmas, can't always respond, Santa's Secret Village does just that. It allows children to personalize a standard form. For instance, the form asks users whether they have a chimney and asks what https://www.magical-santa-letters.com/ toys they want for Christmas.
Armed with the toy ``wish list,'' the people behind the Web site respond within two days and give visitors a secret code to retrieve Santa's keepsake reply letter.
``Santa didn't respond before, but here they get a letter with a signature at the bottom,'' Starkey said. ``I just think it's a different concept. It's a very popular part of the site.''
The site's home page features a winter village of tiny buildings that children click on to reach Santa's workshop, mail room, reindeer barn, Mrs. Claus' kitchen and other places.
Children can view hundreds of hand-drawn illustrations, read original stories about Santa, his elves and his reindeer.
One thing you won't find on the site are advertisements because ``Santa doesn't sell, he just gives,'' Starkey said.
