Whether Santa or Nutcracker, There’s a Way to Explain

Deck your hard drive with boughs of holly. The computer can be a great way to prepare for the holidays--whether to play holiday-themed games or to use the Internet to learn about other religions.

“The Secret World of Santa Claus: The Magical Night”

The fun in this Christmas software starts with a 45-minute cartoon telling the story of Santa using magic to deliver gifts. The villain Guzzlebeard tries to interrupt Santa with a series of dastardly deeds. As Guzzlebeard plots to stop Santa’s magic, children can stop the movie at any time by clicking on the screen.

After watching the movie, the software offers six activities that revolve around the various characters.

Children can put together on-screen jigsaw puzzles, manipulate sliding puzzles and color scenes from the movie and play a memory game by matching holiday items hidden under cards.

Players also can sing Christmas songs karaoke-style and create decorations to print out. The software houses an advent calendar that allows children to open 25 windows in Santa’s Workshop to reveal word puzzles, stories about how other countries celebrate Christmas and holiday sayings. The advent calendar is a little difficult to figure out.

This software provides a fun afternoon of exploration. The cartoon is charming. The activities are standard fare--puzzles and concentration-type games--that are generally easy.

Despite limited distribution, the software can be found at www.amazon.com and www .libraryvideo.com.

“Nutcracker Music Game”

This unusual title uses Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” as the basis for a series of musical puzzles. Children listen to eight segments from the “Suite.” After listening to a segment, the software challenges players to discover which of eight instruments were playing.

Players can experiment with different instruments by selecting those instruments and pressing play. For each combination, music is created and animation appears. However, the “Nutcracker Suite” will play only when the correct instruments are selected.

For each of these music puzzles, there is a hint system. Children can find out how many of their selected instruments are the correct ones to play Tchaikovsky’s music.

The software also offers information on composer Peter Illych Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker story. It provides a tutorial on the musical instruments presented and gives a history of the Nutcracker ballet.

“Kids Domain Web site”

The Kids Domain Web site at www.kidsdomain.com is a wonderful resource for exploring the winter holidays. It has searched the Internet to find the best resources.

In the Holidays section, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan are represented. By clicking on a specific holiday, children learn about that holiday.

In addition, depending on the holiday selected, children can find arts and crafts, games, e-cards, coloring pages and clip art.

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Jinny Gudmundsen is editor of Choosing Children’s Software magazine. She can be reached at jinny@choosingchildrenssoftware .com.

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“The Secret World of Santa Claus: The Magical Night”

Price: $30

Ages: 4 to 8 years

Platform: PC/Mac

System requirements: On the PC, a Pentium 133 with 16 MB of RAM. On the Mac, a PowerPC 132 with 16 MB of RAM.

Publisher: Montparnasse Multimedia

The good: Fun movie and related activities

The bad: The advent calendar

Bottom line: A jolly afternoon of holiday cheer

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“Nutcracker Music Game”

Price: $16

Ages: 4 to 10 years

Platform: PC/Mac

System requirements: On the PC, a Pentium 300 with 64 MB of RAM. On the Mac, a PowerPC with 128 MB of RAM and 75 MB of available hard disk space.

Publisher: Kids Music Stage

The good: Inventive music puzzles using Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite”

The bad: Little variation between games

Bottom line: Engaging way to surround a child with the music of the “Nutcracker Suite”