If you enjoy decorating your home for the holidays, why not your computer desktop too? Respect Soft's free Christmas Tree app puts a twinkling, decorated tree (or ornament, or stocking) on your desktop, with a countdown in days, hours, and minutes to Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Day, and the Julian Christmas (January 7).

The customization options are many: You can elect to play a chime or "Jingle Bells" on the hour or half hour (or not at all). There are several skins to choose from, all photorealistic and pleasing to the eye. You can choose to display sparkling stars on your trees, to make the image always appear on top, and to turn off the countdown display. These options, and more, are available by right-clicking the image. The only thing you can't do in the latest version (updated for Windows 7) is move the image on your desktop, though you can only choose to have it display always on top.

Christmas Tree is a cheerful way to celebrate the holidays, and would be appropriate for most office environments (as long as you turn off the "Jingle Bells" option, of course).

Note: This program was first offered last December and the version has not been updated. On December 1, 2010 I confirmed that the program automatically updates itself for 2010.

--Kim Saccio-Kent