• www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/christmaspage.html: There are thousands of pages included at A Holy Christmas. Updated and expanded seven times now, this offers a multitude of reverent and touching Christmas sermons, stories and poems.

• www.homeschooled-kids.com/christmas.html: This is a beautiful site created for home schooled youngsters that would make a nice addition to every "favorites" list. The art is charming, but the message is clear. It teaches children that in every part of the holiday, from Santa and the gifts he brings right down to the sweet candy canes we're all so fond of, Christmas is first and foremost the celebration of Christ's birth.

• www.backtothebible.org/christmas/12home.html: This site offers both the script for and online recordings of "The Twelve Voices of Christmas." What a perfect way for the family to relive the experience of Christmas.

• www.christthekinganglican.org/xmas/index.html: What better way to commemorate Christ's birth than by making a joyful noise. This site includes the lyrics to dozens of carols and Christmas songs, including some rare ones you don't come across in most collections.

• http://dvlp.family.org/topics/a0018541.cfm: This page from the Family web site includes a dozen or so ways to bring Christ back into focus during the holidays. While all of the stories and articles are worth a read, my favorites are the suggestions you'll find in one called "Come and Behold Him," and the message of "The Christmas Room."

• www.quickdonations.com: In your travels around the Web you may have stumbled onto a site or two that have "click to donate" links, usually set up to help feed the hungry, save the environment or support a specific disease or cause. Through corporate pledges, a predetermined amount is donated each time a visitor simply clicks on the link. More and more individual sites are seeing the sense in such charitable associations, but in order to encourage people to continue to click on a daily basis, there are now some "no cost to the clicker" clearinghouse pages set up.

These sites allow the maximum daily donations to be made in the shortest possible time by providing 20-30 links in a single location. This particular page doesn't have the biggest or best selection, but it does include links to five other clearinghouses including two with extensive lists (Yahoo's Free Donations and the Environmental News Network Donate List).

Even if you don't visit very link every day, just choose a couple of causes that are dear to you and make the commitment to support them. It doesn't cost you anything but time, and the payoffs to the charity can be surprisingly significant.

• www.heifer.org: There are many deserving charities, but Heifer is one I've dealt with personally. Unlike some, there aren't big salaries taken out for the folks who manage the funds you send in. The experts at "Forbes" have named Heifer as one of the top 10 charities, specifically stating that nearly every cent of each dollar donated actually goes to the people in need. But like the old "teach a man to fish" adage, their success goes far beyond that. The Heifer organization should be the model for all charities. Visit the site, read about their program and you'll understand why.

Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based freelance writer who wishes for each of you a little holiday magic and for all of us, peace on Earth.