This is how to follow Santa and his elves as they travel around the globe with Google’s official Santa Tracker.
Global (24 December 2021) – Google is celebrating the Christmas spirit with a microsite dedicated to Santa and all things Christmas.
Google’s Santa Tracker tells you how far he is from your location, the number of presents he has delivered so far, and even the weather conditions where he is.
The tech giant’s tracker is an annual Christmas-themed entertainment website first launched in 2004 by Google that simulates the tracking of the legendary character Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, using predetermined location information. It also allows users to play, watch, and learn through activities that are added daily in December. It was inspired by NORAD Tracks Santa, which has operated since 1955.
Every Christmas Eve, the Google Santa Tracker begins to simulate tracking of Santa at about midnight in the furthest east time zone, about 10 AM UTC.
The map shows Santa alternating between travelling and handing out presents in cities. Santa appears to travel approximately one-time zone west per hour. Counters simulate to viewers how far Santa has travelled so far, how long until he reaches the viewer’s city on the map, the distance from the viewer’s city, and the total number of presents delivered. Santa is depicted as having helpers with him, including the standard reindeer and elves, along with penguins and a snowman.
For each city that Santa is said to visit, the first few paragraphs of the corresponding Wikipedia article are shown, giving an overview of the city. The website also shows photos with the city in the background and a depiction of Santa or his helpers in the foreground. The temperature of the city is accurately given using data from The Weather Channel. Not every large city is visited; some large cities close to other large cities are skipped, while smaller cities that are far from any other populated place are occasionally featured. Even when Santa is travelling, the counter showing the total presents delivered increases, but at a slower rate than when Santa is in a city.
The Santa Tracker is locked until December 24 but is open right now, so get ready to track the deliveries.
To access Google’s Santa site, click here.
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