Letter to Santa by Jeff Phillip, Web Services Manager

My 3 children, ages 6, 9, and 11 are wasting no time this year making sure they get their letters off to Santa. I certainly appreciate their initiative, but wish they would apply it to cleaning their room as well. Nevertheless, the other night when they sat down at the kitchen table to make out their lists – I noticed my daughter was asking for a laptop computer. I questioned her about it and was informed that she figured it would be too expensive to ask mom and dad for it, so she would ask Santa for it instead. Solid logic!

It did get me thinking, though, about the vision many of us have of the North Pole and the hard-working elves working round-the-clock making dolls, toy boats and wooden trucks. The cobblers and woodworker elves of yesteryear almost certainly have been replaced with Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers to accommodate the overwhelmingly technology-dependant generation being raised today. Between laptops, cell phones, video game consoles and other electronic gadgets, this new generation seemingly would not know what to do with a toy that does not plug in somewhere.

And as I thought about it more I realized that the Christmas Letter my parents and grandparents slaved over each year to update friends near and far can now be replaced with a simple e-mail suggesting that they check my Facebook status. If only I could convince Grandma Pat to send her fruitcake electronically...

I can only imagine what is to come in the next couple of years, perhaps a web-enabled Christmas tree where the gifts can simply be downloaded on Christmas Eve, or Virus-Protected stockings to keep the Grinch from hacking into them. Whatever it is, I am certain that Santa and his elves are well ahead of the technology curve.All of this has not settled in my mind whether or not to get my daughter her own laptop this year, but fortunately for me there are daily reminders of how many shopping days remain until Christmas.

P.S. Santa, mine was the letter with the Dell Alienware M17X laptop and a new Blackberry Storm 2.