Microsoft’s John Howard recently blogged about their free Holiday software available for download.  I have those listed on my Free Windows XP Software page – but since this IS the appropriate time of the year I’m listing all of Microsoft’s Holiday Software here:  

• Christmas Theme 2004 – A Christmas desktop theme with new wallpaper, animated cursors, new icons, new sounds, and a 3D screensaver.
  
  
• Digital Photography, Communications, and Browsing Winter Fun Pack Download – Discover a fun set of Internet Explorer holiday favorites (over 50 great holiday sites) and use the Fun Pack templates to create custom greeting cards.
  
  
• Digital Photography Winter Fun Pack 2003 – The holidays are a great time to share photos with friends and family. This download includes several tools that let you display your photos on your PC in fun ways, or create cards with holiday-themed templates.
  
  
• Windows Media Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack Download 2002 – Includes the Holiday Music Auto Playlists Fun new holiday themed Auto Playlists use the Smart Jukebox features in Windows Media Player 9 Series to find and organize your holiday music into mixes.
  
  
• Windows Media Player 9 Winter Fun Pack 2003 – Dress up your Player for the holidays, organize your holiday music, or reorganize your whole music library. The Winter Fun Pack includes skins, auto playlists, a visualization, and a tool to export details about your whole catalog to put you and your computer into the holiday spirit.
  
  
• Winter Fun Pack 2004 for Windows XP Installer.
  
  
• Winter Fun Pack for Windows Movie Maker 2 (2002 & 2003) Check out this expansive collection of wintry sound effects, holiday music, titles, video titles and cut scenes!
  
  
• Winter Fun Screensavers – “Holiday Snowflakes” transforms your computer monitor into a winter wonderland with three-dimensional snowflakes falling from the sky.

Kid's Programming Language (KPL) – Coding4Fun projects, lists a number of Holiday Programs.

• 2005 Holiday Gift Guide – Check out all the cool gifts just perfect for the geek on your list! Our Holiday Gift Guide offers recommendations for programming tools, gadgets, toys, and more.
  
  
• Christmas Tree Shooter – The KPL guys have a new game for you: Christmas Tree Shooter. See whether you can get the last five ornaments on the tree—and see how to program the game as well!
      
• Christmas Wish List – Need help keeping track of all those presents? Jeff Key provides a cool app that lets you manage your wish list, and shows off some cool new table layout and property binding functionality in the .NET Framework 2.0.
      
• Holiday Screen Saver – "Ask The ZMan" article on constructing a holiday screen saver application using DirectX.
  
  
• Holiday Task Manager – Harried for the holidays? Arian Kulp helps you out with a little System Tray app that lets you record and track the tasks you've got to get done to make your holidays the best.
      
• Santa's Gifts – Check out this KPL game that lets you help Santa with his gifts! Larry Serflaten shows you how to build this fun game and learn a few programming concepts as you go. 

DO IT YOURSELF: 

Find:  Holiday clips, templates, and how-to articles  

Find:  Holiday Clip Art

How to:  Create Holiday stationery with Outlook Express

How to:  Create your own holiday and special occasion greeting cards

Microsoft Office Clip Art & Templates 

• Christmas  Clip Art & Templates
  
• Hanukkah Clip Art & Templates
  
• Kwanzaa Clip Art & Templates
  
• General Holiday & Winter 

Microsoft Works Winter Holiday Templates 

Odds & Ends

• Family Newsletter
   
• Holiday Music CD case insert template and (Avery 5824) label
  
• Holiday Party Planner Template
  
• Letter to Santa Clause
  
• Santa Hat OneNote Stationary
  
• Snowflake (Avery) Decals