Santa's Big Helper: Rather useful for young children this week

Our little Archie just turned 18 months old and already he is a dab hand at the iPad. It’s being rather useful when we’re trying to distract him from teething discomfort — but at the same time, we’re trying to avoid making it a guaranteed addition to ‘business as usual’, lest he grow up unable to eat, drink or wash without an iPad stuck to his face.

If you’ve slightly older children, though, I think they might appreciate Santa’s Big Helper for iPhone or iPad. It’s got a wealth of functions — the most important I reckon being the Santa Tracker and the sleeps-til-Christmas counter. You can write to Santa, receive Elf updates via video and you can even see the “Elf Cam” which shows Santa coming down your own Chimney (or similar, if you haven’t got one of those) — it’s basically a super-imposed X-Ray-style video of Santa that you then superimpose over your fireplace/living room. I think your average 5 year old will certainly buy it.

This could well be one of those apps that helps up the ante of excitement and expectation for the coming festive period. It’s $0.99 on the App Store and you can find it here.