Mike's NBC-TV stories

Fun Christmas and Santa apps for 2019

As Christmas Day nears, excitement is building for the big day in young and old alike.

As PC Mike Wendland reports, a number of holiday-themed apps can make the next couple of weeks even more exciting.

Christmas Countdown allows you to choose from eight beautiful backgrounds, featuring Santa and his reindeer, many Christmas trees, and even a snowman. Enjoy classic Christmas music while you watch the falling snow on the countdown screen. You can also open a new gift every day of December in your advent calendar. It’s available for iOS and Android with a premium version with additional features available for purchase.

Portable North Pole lets you create and share magical cinematic personalized messages from Santa Claus while encouraging good behavior.  Santa has free and premium messages for your loved ones, where he says their name, shows their picture and more. Most importantly, they will find out if they’ve made it onto his nice list. The app is free for iOS and Android.

NORAD Tracks Santa Claus is the longest running interactive Santa Claus experience for kids and adults. Every December the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launches their annual Santa tracking event. There’s  interactive games, videos, information and much more – and, of course, the app tracks Santa as he makes his way around the world. The app is free for iOS and Android.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.