[Editor's Note: We certainly have no wish for Mr. Gates, or anyone else to choke, but look at how many links Nancy has for you!. :-) ]

Just in the "nick" of time (sorry about that !) I have some sites to recommend that you can use to dazzle or razzle your family and holiday guests. Some of these are to help entertain children, some are to make you smile, and some are to impress your family with your extensive knowledge about the holiday(s) your family celebrates. You know – age, wisdom, etc. We have to live up to our images.

To make you smile is a Macintosh version of "Twas The Night Before Christmas." You can find it at http://www.humorspace.com/humor/holidays/cmac.htm.

If that isn't enough for you, there is a hilarious parody of "It's A Wonderful Life" that shows what would have happened to the world if Steve Jobs hadn't created the Mac. You can read it at http://now2000.com/jokes/jokes/macchristmas.shtml.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/5295/ramadan.html and http://www.factmonster.com/spot/ramadan1.html celebrate the Islam holy month of Ramadan and explains some of its customs. Both of these sites are geared toward children.

Arabic or English translations of prayers, including sources for each passage can be found at http://www.ummah.org.uk/arabic/qiyam/qiyam1.html. Additional children's activities are featured at http://www.submission.org/YES/child2.html

http://www.hytti.uku.fi/~jantunen/joulu/joulu.html has all kinds of Christmas links from those suitable for kids to those that are not. There is another version of The Night Before Christmas for Macs. There is an "explanation" of what reindeer games Rudolph was not allowed to play. There is a hilarious article called the Politically Correct "12 Days of Christmas." There is information about Christmas celebrations around the world. Just be aware that some of the items on this site are adult oriented.

http://desktoppublishing.com/christmas.html offers a whole array of Christmas related things including free E-cards, animated Christmas .GIFs, A Winter Web Wonderland, a plethora of holiday imagery, clip art, and a Christmas cat site.

You can find my very special recipe for Christmas cookies that you can make in the Apple and Mac logos here at The Mac Observer.

The Billy Bear site always has unique and educational things for kids. http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah.htm features games, crafts and an interactive computer game link for Hanukkah. http://www.billybear4kids.com/holidays/kwanzaa/kwanzaa.htm features games, clip-art, and stories about Kwanzaa and includes downloadable screen savers.

There is more information available about Hanukkah, including songs, games, history, and terms at http://www.ort.org/ort/hanukkah/

All the words you probably ever wanted for Christmas Carols – and some you don't can be found at http://www.primenet.com/~kringle/Main-Carols.html. Everything from "Silent Night" to "O Little Credit Card". I don't make these up readers, I just report what I see. This site also has audios available so you can download and play carols on your computer.

Audios of songs and stories for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are available at http://www.elycia-webdesign.com/seasonal/christmas.html You have to have RealPlayer on computer to access these, but you can download it free from this site. http://wilstar.com/xmas/xmasjuke.htm offers downloaded music using a midi format.

How about a Christmas trivia game? It contains questions such as "Who was Good King Wenceslas?". http://homearts.com/depts/family/1296caf1.htm The answers are there as well. Along those same lines is a great site that provides answers to questions. http://www.mikestrickland.net/christmas/xmasquiz.htm This is where you get to dazzle your family. The questions include things like "When was Christmas first celebrated?" and "How did Xmas originate as an abbreviation for Christmas?" I always thought Xmas was something made up by retail stores, but turns out that is far from the truth.

http://songsofpraise.org/christmas.htm offers the words to modern and traditional Carols.

http://www.users.sccoast.net/tecteach/carol/ offers some cartoon rebuses featuring Christmas as well as links to other fun games and puzzles. I printed these out last year and both the adults and kids enjoyed playing with them. Maybe it was just the $1,000 prize I offered – oh wait maybe it was a $2.00 lottery ticket, but it could have been $1,000 if they had gotten lucky.

If you would like to investigate the historical origins of Christmas you can visit http://christmas.com/worldview/ This site offers details about holiday music, recipes, and world customs.

For the non-frivolous activities you may want to visit http://members.aol.com/churchweb/christmas/. This site serves as a directory of links to religious sites for Christmas. It does not include any Santa or Frosty sites, but has music, sermons, and holiday history.

http://www.njwebworks.net/christmas/ is loaded with Christmas links to historical information, Advent calendars, traditions, the Magi, Christmas meditations, sermons and worship, music, drama, images, and E-cards (electronic holiday cards that you can send at no cost.)

And while I am mentioning history, how about learning about ancient celebrations such as Saturnalia – Winter Solstice in Pagan Rome which you can find at http://www.circlesanctuary.org/pholidays/SaturnaliaInfo.html Candlegrove's Ancient Origins of the Holidays http://www.candlegrove.com/home.html explores the celebration of solstices and equinoxes by ancient cultures and the history of Sacae-Saturnalia and Yule. Yet another site, Ancient Origins of the Holidays – Winter Solstice http://www.best.com/~teresar discusses the history of the solstice and its evolution to yuletide celebrations.

http://www.njwebworks.com/christmas/guestbook.html is a good site to visit to become familiar with Webrings. These are various individual sites of a theme that are linked. You might visit John Jones special site about web page design. At the bottom will be a webring and if you click on it, it sends you automatically to the next one, etc. It cuts down considerably on the time you spend searching for something. On this particular page I found out that The Twelve Days of Christmas is actually a Catholic catechism song. Between the years 1558-1829, English Catholics were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Without regular mass, sacraments, or catechism lessons from the priest, there was little parents could do to help their children learn and remember all of their faith. This song was created to keep the Catholic faith in their lives, even though hidden for the time.

Speaking of E-cards, http://msn.egreetings.com/gp/msn-home/pg/cat?collectionId=8706 offers a selection of E-cards for Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah, as well as generic Seasons Greetings cards.

http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/ declares itself to be the official Kwanzaa web site and http://members.tripod.com/~Nancy_J/kwanzaa.htm features traditional Kwanzaa recipes. The first one is sweet potato pie and it sounds wonderful.

A site called Everything About Kwanzaa, http://www.tike.com/celeb-kw.htm includes information on home decorations, gift giving, the Kwanzaa feast, and other aspects of the holiday celebration.

And lastly, the best site of all I found is at http://search.iwon.com/commerce/directory.jsp?categoryid=62439&alias=/alias/directory/regular This site features information and links for every holiday imaginable. I skipped around and checked out several links and they were all very good, with lots of information available.

All of this should keep you busy for today. What is that? You are still preparing for the holidays? You mean everything isn't done yet? Well, have fun and be kind to yourself and enjoy your Mac.

If you have any tips, suggestions, or other comments about this, or any other Mac topics, send them to me so that I can share them with other readers.

Copies of Nancy's book Tips, Hints, and Solutions for Seasoned Beginners Using Apple Macintosh Computers With OS X are available in PDF download versions  for US$9.57 and in print version for $18.15 plus $4.00 shipping.   To view sample pages and get ordering information visit the September 14, 2004 column.

Post your comments below.

Check out Nancy's complete index of all her columns for the most complete list of tips anywhere. The list is categorized and is a great reference when you are looking for help! A Capacious Catalog Of Computer Tips

Talking to a generation that remembers what the world was like before there was color, covers issues for people who don't care how their computer works, but rather what their computer and the internet can do for them.

Nancy has a Master's degree in Human Services Administration and prior to her retirement she worked for almost 30 years in field of mental health and mental retardation. She has been a Mac user for 11 years, and has recently developed an avocation of teaching basic computer skills in both group and one-to-one settings.

• Of iPod Cases and System Preferences - August 30th
• Cool Tips, Kudos for Bob, & a Review - July 31st
• Two Apps for Reading and Browsing - June 23rd

Other "Computing With Bifocals" Columns