Holidays are perfect opportunity to give kids educational software.

You have kids, you have a computer, and you have Christmas coming up. We have the perfect recipe to blend all three.

If you're looking for a fun Christmas present for a youngster who uses the family computer - or if you've just acquired a personal computer and you're trying to find ways to get the kids interested - the gift of the year is a totally charming, nonviolent, educational (well, quasi-educational) game called "Stay Tooned" from Sierra (310-793-0600).

Our family has been testing a whole raft of new games with Christmas in mind - yeah, rotten job, but we'll do anything for our readers - and "Stay Tooned" is the pick of the lot this year. This is a gift that starts entertaining even while it's waiting under the tree, because the box it comes in is the funniest software box we've seen in years.

It's a big yellow cereal box with the bold declaration "Provides NO Essential Vitamins or Minerals." The box also offers a list of ingredients: "Bombs, cream pies, anvils, falling pianos, exploding cigars ..." and so on - and a warning label: "Addiction Guaranteed!"

The game itself (with both Windows and Macintosh versions on a single CD-ROM) is consistently funny and somewhat unpredictable. It's basically a witty parody of those Saturday morning cartoon shows, plus other familiar TV programs.

There are also assorted quizzes and puzzles you have to solve to get your chosen cartoon character to the finish line. The game plays in 3-D, but you don't need a $300 3-D display adaptor to play it because the makers have included a pair of 3-D glasses that provide genuine 3-D effects on a normal color screen.

"Stay Tooned" passed the acid test in our house: The resident 12-year-old, who is much too "cool" at the moment to display excitement about anything, quickly got addicted to this game. So did her father, who is older than 12 but doesn't always act like it.

If you want to pay less than the $30 or so "Stay Tooned" will cost, a company called Inverse Ink (800-771-1344) has put out a series of somewhat entertaining CD-ROMs priced below $10. These are called "CD-ROM Comic Books" - one story each of Superman, Batman, Superboy and Aquaman. A normal page of comic book frames appears on the screen, but these comics have motion and built-in sound effects.

We tried these comic book discs on a fast Power Computing Macintosh clone, and were disappointed at how slow the program runs. It would be much quicker, and cheaper, to just read the actual comic book. The reason we mention the product is that these books on CD would be perfect for a 5- or 6-year-old who needs to hone his or her reading skills. The words and pictures appear on the screen, but the computer will also read every word aloud to provide help or reassurance.

For grown-ups who look at today's computer games and mumble about the "good old days," Microsoft has put out a game package with four goldie oldies from the dawn of computer game history. These, too, have been a hit in our house; interestingly, they've been most popular with the younger kids who have no recollection of the Pac-Man era.

The pack, called "Microsoft Return of Arcade," is one of the few new programs that comes on plain-old floppy disc, not CD-ROM. On the disc you'll find Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Galaxian, and Pole Position - all classics from the heyday of the game arcade. Compared to the 3-D, multimedia extravaganzas that mark the current generation of computer games, these four seem like plain vanilla. But they still have the universal appeal that made them hits a generation ago.

This package (about $25) is something like touring a computer-game museum, which can be fun. Warning: If you do bring home "Return of Arcade," you'll once again have the familiar "wucka-wucka-wucka" of Pac-Man ringing constantly in your ears.

If Pac-Man isn't challenging enough, we've recently run across the best personal computer chess game we've seen yet. It's called "Power Chess," from Sierra. This CD-ROM is just packed with stuff: a chess game that you can play, at numerous skill levels, against the computer or other players; 8 different chess sets, which appear on your screen in 3-D; and a library of famous chess games, from the 17th century through a Bobby Fischer game and this year's much publicized match between the world champion and a computer.

Another teaching game that was a hit with our kids is the interesting program "Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess," from Simon & Schuster software. The great virtue of this offering is that it is simple aimed at rank beginners to intermediates. It will play against you at any level, and jump in to critique your moves and tell you how you could have played better. And watch for the sequence where a bunch of football players start stomping across the board to demonstrate principles of aggressive play.

T.R. Reid is Rocky Mountain bureau chief of the Washington Post. Brit Hume is a Capitol Hill correspondent for ABC News. You can reach them in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington D.C. 20071-9200, or you can e-mail T.R. Reid at [e-mail] com.com, or Brit Hume at [e-mail].