(Atlanta) Naughty or nice? This Christmas Eve, right next to the milk and cookies they leave for Santa, thousands of children will also set out their northpole.com Good Deeds Calendars as proof of their “niceness” and good behavior.

The holiday site encourages children to check off their achievements and good behavior throughout the year—not just at Christmas—on monthly calendar printouts, and then leave them for Santa on Christmas Eve. Downloaded by the thousands each month from northpole.com, the Good Deed Calendars have been one of the most popular free activities on this Web site, along with personalized, printable stories that place children as the featured character in Christmas stories.

In fact, so many visitors come to the year-round site every month for its dozens of free activities; the decision was made in August to open Santa’s mailroom to accept letters year-round. The result: In September alone, more than 4,000 children sent letters to Santa—an extraordinary number for September, but still small compared to the tens-of-thousands received and answered by northpole.com in November and December each year.

In its eighth year, the site offers a number of new free activities, including:

NORAD Santa Tracker link – Northpole.com will provide a quick, seamless link to NORAD’s Santa Tracker this Christmas Eve, so children can play at the ‘Northpole’ and still keep an eye out for a radar sighting of Santa’s sleigh and the reindeer. Each Christmas Eve, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) hosts a volunteer-run Web site that enables children to follow Santa’s satellite-tracked path.

Birthday cards from Santa – Parents can register children to receive a birthday e-card from Santa. To receive the card, parents register the child's name, birth date, and e-mail address. Northpole.com follows a strict privacy policy and does not share personally identifiable information with third parties.

Tell Time and Count Money – Need help teaching children time and money concepts? These activities make learning fun.

Santa’s Naughty or Nice List – Kids can take a short quiz to see how they rate on Santa’s list!

New games –Cheery Checkers, Trim the Tree, Build a Snowman, and new crossword puzzles offer new entertainment.

A metric conversion table for recipes – In response to visitor requests, this new feature was added to Mrs. Claus' Kitchen to help convert measurements, along with a recipe quick-search feature.

Wish List – Santa's Mailroom now provides children a place to note what they want for Christmas any time of the year.

All-time favorites from previous years are still here and still free: Disco Dancing Santa, Elf Chat , Flash Cards, Mazes, Connect-the-dots, Concentration, Word Search, Coloring Book, Elf Pal Academy, original children's stories, animated holiday postcards, recipes, and a Christmas-only radio station.

Northpole.com has entertained children and their families since 1996 with its unique combination of creativity, state-of-the-art technology, and a traditional view of Christmas. The northpole.com site is richly illustrated with hundreds of original, detailed, hand-drawn artwork. Visitors click on different "rooms" to enter, leading to a variety of activities or stories. Rooms include Santa's Mailroom, Santa's Workshop, Elf Clubhouse, Santa's Reindeer Barn, Santa's Den, Mrs. Claus' Kitchen, Northpole Weather Station, Toy Shop, and Gift Shop.

Instead of selling advertising through the usual banner ads, northpole.com donates banner ads to selected charitable groups. This year northpole.com is donating one million banner ads and links on its Web site to each of the following institutions: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America®, The Silver Lining Foundation, and Ronald McDonald House® Charities. By giving these organizations free advertising, northpole.com helps promote public support and knowledge of pediatric cancer research and the treatment and opportunities available to help children with life-threatening illnesses.