It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Cisco and Packet8 are brightening the holidays for hospitalized children with live videophone visits from Santa this Christmas. Cisco announced their video visits last week and Packet8 just put out the news today.

Using the two company’s videophones, young patients will be able to see and chat with Santa at his “North Pole” workshop. Cisco’s version features one-button Santa calling. And both companies are following up the calls with gifts for the children.

“The fact that these children can actually see and interact with Santa, rather than just speak with him, makes a huge difference,” said Packet8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin in a Dec. 6 press release. “Children can also point at and see specific toys and attractions located throughout Santa’s workshop.”

Packet8 leads the pack in videophone technology. The company’s components were used in AT&T’s Picturephone, which debuted at the New York World’s Fair in the 1960s and was last seen in a 1992 incarnation.

The Picturephone never caught on with subscribers. Some of the reasons may be that callers had to reserve time at a special Picturephone location and needed help from a “helpful Picturephone attendant.” Another factor was likely the price: $16 to $27 for three minutes. That’s about what a frugal family of four of that era spent on groceries for a week.

Take a look at the original Picturephone brochure “Seeing by Telephone: The Picturephone Story.”

This was my first VON show. Turnout appeared light and my peers confirmed that turnout was around 20% lower than past years. It’s been a while since I worked a trade show and maybe I’ve spent too much time in Berkeley, but it felt like we were nickel-and-dimed for every little thing at the show. It didn’t feel like the show was an effective use of resources.

I spent most of my time during the show working on our new website and forum. But I did get a chance to walk the floor and didn’t really see anything inspiring in the VoIP space. If you’ve seen one E-911 provider, you’ve seen them all.

One booth that did catch my eye was TiVi, a Latvian company with two-way cell phone video. The video quality was pretty good; the picture updated smoothly and didn’t have the typical video jerkiness. I like seeing innovative solutions from countries that aren’t traditionally known for technology.

Our industry has reached a plateau, even with VoIP usage increasing and more companies entering the market space. VoIP is at the point in the adoption lifecycle where it needs to transition from early adopters to general consumers. Manufacturers and providers need to transition their offering focus from novelty to simplicity.

The video phone has for the most part been a thing of the future and of ancient Jetson cartoons. It’s not that it hasn’t been available, it’s more that no one has come up with a good reason to use it.

But it looks that someone — specifically Packet8 — has taken steps to pitch video telephony in a way that makes it something more current, and useful. In short: Forget business, get it in the home.

Over the past couple of years, there have been a handful of video phones available using SIP that have gained very little traction. I’ve tried a couple for 5 minutes, said “Cool,” and never used them again.

For some reason, video telephony has been focused on the business sector, as though seeing the person you’re talking to on a 4-inch screen will make an important transaction go a bit more smoothly.

Wrong.

When it comes to work, I’ve got a look made for voice, not video. I won’t remember to brush my hair when the phone rings in order to appear business-like. And I won’t wear a tie to the office daily in the off-chance the CEO of AT&T calls to chat about the future of internet communications.

Here at Fall VON in Boston, Packet8 announced a new offering called the Freedom Unlimited VideoPhone Plan (Packet8 Video Phone Plans) tailor-made for the home. For $20 a month you can make unlimited video phone calls over a softphone client (made by Counterpath) on the Packet8 network.

It’s a good start.

Of course, with a small amount of tech knowledge and the right gear, any two parties can do what Packet8 offers for free. I’ve been videoing with my daughters back home in San Francisco nightly from my hotel room the past few days using the built-in cameras on the Mac I carry and the one that sits semi-permanently in our living room at home.

Using the built-in capabilities of iChat in OSX, it’s been relatively easy (save for the occasional glitch caused by the very poor broadband connection at the severely overpriced Sheraton I’m at) and free (save for the usurious $10 Mr. Sheraton is taking each day so that I can access the internet).

To connect this way, my wife and I have to arrange to be at the computer at the same time, usually by cell phone. Packet8’s offering removes this inconvenience in that I can just “call” home from my computer, and the computer in our living room will “ring.”

Ultimately though, the way video telephony will take off is to take it off both the phone and the computer. The right way is to make it part of the home entertainment system. The hardware to do that is already, for the most part, readily and cheaply available.

Imagine a typical eyeball camera attached to the top of your TV and connected directly to a home theater PC. Place a well-made microphone at your coffee table (Hello Polycom . . . you can do this . . . are you listening?).

Now, sit down with your kids on the sofa and click to call their grandma with a similar set-up. In an instant, and with a big enough TV, your mother-in-law is in your living room, sitting down in front of you. Click, and she’s gone with no need to call a cab.

We’ll see this because it makes sense and its cheap to do. But first we have to get over the idea of the video phone as a business tool (and as a way for geeks to geek).

You’ve made it part way, Packet 8. Now take the next step and make it something we can all use. Someone will soon.