Simon Houghton  recently blogged an article which provides step by step instructions for teachers/students in relation to creating short animated GIF images of Christmas trees with flashing lights and stars  using PowerPoint. The procedure is easy to follow and is a great ICT lesson for the end of the year! I set this as an extension activity for several of my ICT savvy students in Year 3 today.
Source: Carolyn Lewis, St Aloysius College

After Carolyn emailed me this resource, it prompted my memory in regards to the ability to  create Christmas animations using SMART Notebook software. I learnt this skill from Matt Granger in 2011 during a global SMARTboard webinar. Below is a very short video tutorial.