As the holiday season approaches, we can't help but notice how Web-savvy Santa Claus has become. Not content with delivering bandwidth-gobbling devices to everyone on his list, he's now making personal appearances online. Internet-connected children can follow his progress courtesy of NORAD, which diverts its high-tech equipment from missile defense to Santa tracking for a brief period each year. NORAD says it uses radar, satellites, jet fighters and especially its Santa Cams to capture real-time video footage (hoofage?) of Santa and his reindeer.

Santa also appears in the online "Shave Santa" contest, where viewers (who must be 18 or older, which seems to eliminate many of his fans) can compete to reshape his beard, mustache and bushy eyebrows. The winner will receive a Remington electric shaver.

Finally, Cisco, for the third year in a row, is giving hospitalized children a chance to see and speak with Santa through its Internet video telephones. Children in Canada, Germany and the United States will be given access to special videophones with a one-button connection to the North Pole. The children and their families will gather in hospital common areas where the videophones will be set up; in most of the hospitals, the phones will also be brought to patients' rooms so that even children who are too sick to leave their rooms can participate. Santa's gifts for the children will be delivered courtesy of Cisco and Mattel.