When I was a kid, before I went to bed on Christmas Eve I would leave my wishlist of presents near the fireplace along with the awesome bribe of milk and cookies so that, hopefully, Santa Claus would leave me lots of loot. Although it always seemed to work for me, that holiday ritual probably sounds like a pastoral relic to kids today and the new Santa App that Amazon launched yesterday doesn’t really help me sound any less old.
Kids and parents (or anybody in charge of kids, for that matter) can now compile Christmas wishlists with even greater ease thanks to Amazon’s new Santa App. The app is intended for children to be able to create a visual wishlist by browsing through thousands of products that have been deemed kid- and family-friendly. Amazon goes on to explain in their press release for the app:
Sometimes Santa can use help sorting out what gifts to give everyone and this new app makes it easy and fun for kids to create their perfect Wish List,” said Sam Hall, director of Amazon Mobile. “We’ve selected more than five-hundred thousand of the hottest kid-friendly holiday gifts and made it fun, easy and intuitive for kids to find exactly what they want. The Amazon Santa app is also a great way for parents to spend some quality time with their kids and help make certain there’s a smile Christmas morning.
As you’ll see below, the design of this app will probably not be as exciting for teenagers as it will be for younger children (but who knows given how fast kids grow up these days):
The press release states that the app is designed for the new Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad while it conspicuously omits any mention of Android devices. However, once you browse to Amazon’s Appstore to purchase the app – don’t worry, it’s free – you’ll immediately notice the bold text that claims, “Available instantly on your Android device.” It’s not really clear if the Android availability refers only to the Kindle Fire (since those are running their own version of the Android OS) or if it will work on all Android-running devices. Some comments in the reviews lament the lack of availability of the Santa App for “other devices” but no reviewer actually states which devices they’d like to see included.
If you plan to or already have used this app, let us know what you think in the comments. Or, if you’ve tried to use the app on your Android device that isn’t a Kindle Fire, let us know what you found out.
