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Charles Moore’s Mac Christmas Software Roundup 2002
I love Christmas; the trees, the music, the lights and decorations, the holiday traditions, the focus on family and friends, and of course, as a Christian, contemplating the event that the celebration commemorates. Every year through the month of December, by Mac also reflects the holiday season, and I look forward to changing my Desktop background to a selection of Christmasy winters scenes that I reserve for this time of the year. So, once again this year, as I dictate and type this column, snow is gently falling and building up on top of open windows on my PowerBook’s Desktop, which currently depicts country house surrounded by snowy evergreens amid a delightful winter pastorale, a cozy redoubt with steep gabled roofs and with light shining from its windows casting a warm and welcoming glow in the gathering dusk while virtual snow continues to fall and Santa and his reindeer make their way through the winter sky, battered by headwinds. I had been a bit concerned that my favorite Christmas desktop picture, one described in the preceding paragraph, might not display as satisfactorily on the Pismo’s 14.1-inch 1024 x 768 display as it has for the past several years on my old WallStreet’s 12.1-inch 800 x 600 screen. However, it still looks great -- a bit softer-focus perhaps on the larger monitor, but that may even enhance the effect. 
This is in OS 9.2, although I have the same Desktop picture up in OS X this year. However, there is no virtual snowfall application available in OS X yet (there is a new snow screensaver). However, there is a lot more Christmas software available for OS X this season, compared with last year when all I could find was a wreath to decorate the Dock. ADDENDUM/ERRATUM: I was mistaken about the unavailability of an OS X Desktop snowfall app. Reader Korin Hasegawa-John clued me in:
Hi Charles,
Your statement that says "there is no OS X snowfall application" is incorrect. (I'm running one right now in Jag) The very nice Snš app/screensaver combo (written by David Remahl) is for OS X. It is available from http://hem.passagen.se/dare (english-language page).
Have a merry Christmas!
I've downloaded and am running it. Very nice! See description and screenshots below. Personally, for Christmas decoration I tend to prefer a fairly subdued festive array, with So we scenes and virtual snowfall, but if you prefer, software is available to go all-out with a Snoopy/Tim Taylor-style Christmas extravaganza on your desktop, especially in the Classic OS, with Christmas lights, wreaths, trees, and icons as well. Also included in our Christmas software roundup this year are couple of new OS X applications that help you create personalized Christmas greetings. Enjoy, and a merry Christmas to all! Mac OS X Christmas Software Sno Snö (the Swedish name for Snow ) is a n application that makes snow fall over your desktop. 
Snö consists of two separate parts. Snö Desktop is a program, that lets snow fall on your screen, while you are working with other things at the same time. To install Snö Dekstop, just drag it to any place on your harddrive. Snö Screen Saver is a Mac OS X screensaver module. To install this, drag the file to the Screen Savers folder in the Library folder of your home folder: Mac OS X Drive -> Users -> YourUser -> Library -> Screen Savers If you are an admin, you can make the module available to all users on the machine by putting it in: Mac OS X Drive -> Library -> Screen Savers (you may have to create this directory yourself.) 
Snö is freeware, OpenSource, non-copyrighted and totally unsupported. For more information, visit: eSanta 1.0 for Mac OS X 
eSanta was designed because of a story that appeared on Wired.com recently about the many Internet Santa sites that never return an e-mail to children. eSanta solves that problem by formulating a response to the children each and every time (and is even worded slightly different, should you have more than one child using the program). eSanta also displays the remaining days until Christmas. System requirements: For more information, visit: NightLights 1.1 Decorates Your Mac With Blinking Holiday Lights 
NightLights comes with both “Mini”, and “C7” type light bulbs. You can choose to display either or both. You can also choose the blink time, or choose to have your lights burn steady. You may use NightLights for FREE, but if register for $5.00, you get three more bulb colors, and “Desktop Mode”. 
New in this version: Christi’s Tree 2.1 Desktop Christmas Tree W/Christmas Countdown In Dock Christi’s Tree is simply a Christmas Tree for your Mac. It sits on your desktop or in your dock to give your Mac that extra little bit of holiday cheer that sets you apart from all the PC weenies out there. The tree has lots of great features. You can add decorations like cranberry garland, red Christmas balls, and even flashing lights. It works in your dock, or as a floating window. And best of all, it’s free. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas! 
This is Christi’s Tree with the cranberry garland and the red Christmas balls. If you can see that the balls are actually tiny glassy aqua-style balls. 
This is Christi’s Tree configured with no decorations. We left the star on top (I don’t know why -- we just did). It’s nice and simple. Just a tree. 
This is Christi’s tree configured with everything. It’s even got the flashing lights -- although they look better when they’re actually going. This screenshot makes them look a bit more psychedelic than maybe they really are. New in this version: System requirements: XMas Lights 1.5 Cocoa Holiday Lights To Hang From The Menu Bar 
Very small (just over 300k), very process friendly (won’t slow you down) and very festive. New in this version: SnowSaver 1.1b2 OpenGL Falling Snowflakes Screensaver 
Tweakable parameters include snowflake size, depth fog, number of snowflakes, depth of scene, and background color. Defaults should make it look similar to the Apple display. For more information, visit: Wreath In The Dock 
System Requirements: Wreath in the Dock is Absolutely Freeware. For more information, visit: Aqua Christmas 15 icons in this set: 
Candy Canes, Candy Canes in cup, Gingerbread House, Gingerbread Man, Heart (green, red), Holly, Mistletoe, Red Stocking, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus, Snowman, Wreath, Christmas Tree and Gifts, Xmas Trees. For more information, visit: Free Holiday Photo Cards Available for Portraits & Prints This Holiday season Mac OS X users get an early gift from Econ Technologies - Free Holiday Photo Cards. Download over 40 Holiday templates for use with Portraits & Prints?, the powerful photo printing solution for Mac OS X. Go to http://www.econtechnologies.com and see how easy it is to print your holiday photos with Portraits & Prints and your Mac. 
Make this holiday season a little less hectic using your Mac to bring your digital photos to life. Choose from a wide variety of holiday themes featuring 4X6, 4X5, and even photo mask cards. Just add these holiday templates to Portraits & Prints and they are ready to go. Change text by just clicking on the text button and typing in your own custom message. Portraits & Prints is the complete Mac OS X solution for modifying and printing digital images. Choose from the variety of templates that comes with Portraits & Prints or create your own using Template Maker. With this companion application, place any size and number of photos, graphics, and text to templates. Even customize the holiday templates and give them your own personal touch. Portraits & Prints can even be integrated with iPhoto. Try out the demos, check out the holiday templates and see how easy it can be to turn your Mac into a photo studio! You can purchase Portraits & Prints for $20.00 and its companion Portraits & Prints Template Maker for $10.00 online at the Econ Technologies, Inc. web site (http://www.econtechnologies.com). Easy Card Creator Create greeting cards this holiday season with Easy Card Creator for Mac OS X. Its simple to use your own digital pictures to create attractive and personal cards. Easy Card can also create envelopes that can be printed out, cut and folded and hold the cards perfectly for mailing. If there is no time to mail a card then email a card directly from within Easy Card Creator which is very handy for those last minute emergency cards. 
Easy Card Creator works like other vector based image editing software such as AppleWorks or Illustrator. Meaning if you know how to drag & drop, you can create a greeting card. Just drag out the object you want from palette on the left drop it onto the page, the rest is controlled from the properties palette. Templates for cards can also be created to assist others to make cards even faster. Download it today and start on your holiday cards. Main Features: 
For more information, visit: Classic OS Christmas Software Snow Version 2.4 Dave Warker’s’ Snow is a small, free application for the Mac, categorized as a “Sanity Saver” by its author, that drifts snowflakes down your monitor screen accompanied by the gentle sound of sleigh bells or Christmas music. 
You can select the desired snowstorm intensity using the Flakes sub-menu, from gentle flurries to blizzard conditions. Turning on causes some of the flakes to be blown about. Snow supports multiple sets of flakes. You can also adjust the volume of the jingling sleigh bells, or turn them off completely The Tunes menu requires QuickTime 2.0 or later By default, Snow plays available tunes in random order but you can uncheck the Random Order menu item to hear them sequentially. You can also add more tunes by placing MIDI files in the Snow Tunes folder. Several download site links are included in the program’s online documentation. The package includes sample QuickTime music files of jazzed up holiday favorites. With this release you can now convert MIDI files to QuickTime music files via drag-and-drop. System Requirements: Automatic wake up requires System 7 or later. Music requires at least QuickTime 2.0 but for best results you should be using Apple’s latest QuickTime package. You can download it from the QuickTime site at http://www.quicktime.apple.com. A jumping off point to other MIDI sites. New in version 2.4: Snow is free for personal use. For more information, visit: Snow for Macintosh Rick Jansen’s Snow for Macintosh, the snow app I’m currently using on my PowerBook. lets it snow on your desktop, on your windows and sends Santa running around your screen for that extra Festive Season Cheer. 
• The whole process of letting it snow on your windows is rather CPU intensive. If you find Snow slows down your machine choose fewer snowflakes, no Santa, no tree or no Snow at all and that sort of thing. For more information, visit: Snow’ed 1.0 Snow’ed is yet another desktop application that puts snow on your desktop, this time in a window frame. From the menu bar you can choose options like different color window frames and how much snow to fall. 
The snow in the application is anti-aliased, and each flake has its own speed and brightness. You have your choice of four window styles : White, Brown, Moonlit, and Walter Mitty. Snow’ed 1.0 is only a $1 to Artly There via Kagi as an extra donation when registering something like Compositor (because Kagi bills me $2.50 otherwise for a $1 item) or Simply a $1 donation to anyone-who-has-less-than-you (Go for it). System requirements: For more information, visit: Christmas Desktop Pictures For a Christmasy desktop backdrop for your lights, music, and snowflakes, you might want to download a seasonally appropriate desktop picture from one of several sites around the Web. I found several Christmas desktops that I like, including http://www.deskpicture.com/features/christmas/christmas3.html the one I described above, at Pierce Software’s Great Deskpictures Website. Holiday Lights 5.2 Tiger Technologies’ http://www.tigertech.com/ Holiday Lights is a little shareware application that strings rows of Christmas tree bulbs and/or other small decorations around the borders of your monitor, with festive music playing the background. It even includes a screen saver with gently falling snow that gradually builds up on the glowing lights, and other seasonal choices to put you in the festive spirit. 
The colorful lights blink (or optionally just glow) on your desktop while you continue to work, so it’s not just a screen saver. You can choose from a variety of different bulbs and decorations, and change them as suits your fancy by simply clicking and dragging bulbs in the Holiday Lights Bulb Factory dialog box. Holiday Lights also includes a large selection of Christmas and Hanukkah music (as well as other music files), but most of them are not accessible until the program is registered. You can also easily add any MIDI tune to the music selection. The settings for the bulbs, music and screen saver are now all in one window, which is accessed by choosing “Settings” from the “Edit” menu. The settings for the bulbs, music and screen saver are now all in one window, which is accessed by choosing “Settings” from the “Edit” menu. Support for themes. Arrange your bulbs, music and screen saver settings the way you like them, then click “Save Theme” in the theme area of the Settings window. Your settings are saved as a theme for later use. Better randomization of music: songs won’t repeat until you’ve heard each of them. The music now supports MP3 and AIFF files as well as MIDI songs. It supports aliases; you can put an alias to your folder of MP3 songs into the Holiday Lights Music folder and it will work. (Requires QuickTime 4.) You can check out the Add-On Bulbs page for extra Mac and Windows bulbs. There are System requirements: If you know someone else who might enjoy Holiday Lights, you can use the Holiday Lights gift ordering page to send your favorite people copies for $9.95 -- 50% off the normal price, and it’s delivered instantly. For more information, visit: Christmas Fun Time This is the latest program from Bry-Back Manor, designed for very young children. Decorate the tree, decorate a gingerbread house, or dress some snow people. Maybe you’ll even get to see Santa! Nice graphics, fun surprises, very cute! Download from: Note: If you know of any Mac Christmas software that I've missed, please let me know. CM
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Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
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