The web is a wonderful way for people to communicate with each other, and Christmas is an excellent excuse to begin talking. Why not send an email to old forgotten friends wishing them a happy holiday. Better yet, I'm sure your favorite ecard site has Christmas themed cards ready to be sent.

There are literally thousands of sites which contain just about everything Christmas related that you could possibly imagine. A short list is included here for your pleasure. At bottom are references to a few of really huge lists of Christmas links: be warned, though, that these will eat up an entire day (at a minimum) of surfing fun.

Join A Real.... North Pole Expedition http://www.north-pole-expeditions.com/

Got a few thousand dollars? Then how about booking a flight to North Pole? At first I thought this was a joke, but perhaps it's real. If anyone goes on a trip via this group, let me know how it turns out!

North Pole Expedition http://www.northpole-expeditions.com/

Pretty cool site all about recent expeditions to North Pole.

Santa's Workshop http://www.santas-workshop.org/

If you want to find out something about Santa and his elves, then check out this site. They have a "live elf cam" which is very entertaining, pictures that can be printed and colored with crayons, recipes, quizzes and tons of other great activities.

North Pole http://www.northpole.com/Village.html

Now this is cool. It's a gift store but site is put together so well that it is extremely entertaining. They have used Flash to create a wonderful, fun-filled virtual tour through North Pole. I had a great time, although I didn't purchase anything.

Santa's House http://santas-workshop.8m.com/index.html

Take a virtual tour of Santa's house. Look into Mrs. Claus's kitchen and see what she's cooking today. Nice graphics - a short but fun web site.

NORAD Santa Tracking http://www.noradsanta.org/

A yearly tradition for decades. NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) uses it's early warning detection system to track exact location of Santa on Christmas Eve. This is displayed for all to see on their web site, along with glimpses of his sleigh from satellites and fighter jets.

Send an Email to Santa http://www.geocities.com/express_to_santa/santamail

When you were a child, did you ever sent an email to Santa only to never receive a response? Well, now your children can send their Christmas lists directly to Santa and get a response!

Paper Snowflakes http://www.papersnowflakes.com/preview1.htm

Now here is an interesting idea: printable paper snowflakes. For $12 a year, you get access to hundreds of patterns, which are cut apart with scissors. Remember making these as a kid? (I sure do!) Well, this artist has created some excellent patterns for your kids to make wonderful paper projects. There is also a selection of free snowflakes.

Santa Live http://www.santalive.com/

See live interviews with Santa, or just play some Christmas games. An amusing site.

Wrap Art http://www.boakart.com/wrap/WrapArt.html

Have some fun with gift wrapping.

Printable Gift Tags http://www.webhuggs.com/promos/gifttags.htm

Are you paying good money for those little tags which you attach to gifts which have name of person to whom gift is intended? Why not print your own? These tags are free and look great!

Printable Gift Tags http://www.pattyboothe.com/Promo/ChristmasFun/Assortedtags/index.html

So what's best course of action when you are a beginner? I mean, most people want to look like they know what they are talking about. Sometimes hardest thing in entire world is to admit you know nothing or very little about a subject.

Yet, when you are a beginner at something, that's what you have to do. You must admit to yourself (at least) that you are a beginner and you must understand that there is something to learn about subject. Learning about internet is no exception to this rule.

Learning

My advice is to just jump in and start learning all you can learn. How you learn about internet depends upon your own preference and style. Also remember that you can combine learning styles as desired or needed to suit your taste.

High School or college courses - Some people learn best in a scholastic atmosphere. Personally, this drives me up wall, but others thrive on a campus with lecture halls, teachers, home room and hall monitors. If this describes how you best like to learn, then by all means go for it. If you are pressed for time, remember there are night and weekend classes available at most educational facilities. Not much money? Try community colleges - they are inexpensive and often have excellent computer curricula.

Informational Web Sites - Our site has a large amount of information designed to help people learn about internet. There are many other such sites and some of them are quite useful indeed. In fact, we learned much of what we know from many of these sites, and use them to this day to expand upon our knowledge. Just be careful, however, that you understand motivation of these web sites - often they are honest, but sometimes they are attempting to get you to purchase something that you may not need.

Trade Courses - You can find many trade schools which offer courses. These differ from college in that they very short (a day to a week), they are usually very expensive (a few hundred to a few thousand per class), and they are of limited focus and duration. Courses are great for focused, specific knowledge or for earning a certification - and they are wonderful when bill is picked up by company you work for. Otherwise, there are cheaper, better ways to learn your skills.

Books - Don't forget books. Your local library or bookstore is one of your best friends, if used properly. It never ceases to amaze me to watch people spend small fortunes on books, courses, tapes, and classes when a book checked our from their tax-supported library would serve their purposes just fine. Think about it - how often will you be reading that book on Microsoft Excel again?