Google’s 2016 Santa Tracker signals the official countdown to Christmas

The countdown to Christmas Day has officially begun on Google with the launch of its annual Santa Tracker yesterday.

In addition to the countdown clock, Google also opened its Santa Village, offering a site for parents and educators with activities for K-12 students, a Santa Tracker app for Android and a Santa Tracker Chrome extension (in case you want to keep track of Santa’s “precise” location at all times).

For 12 years now, Google’s Santa Tracker has counted down the seconds until Santa Claus takes flight from the North Pole on December 24.
[blockquote cite=”From the Google Santa Village website”]Santa’s dashboard — featuring the latest and greatest in Google Maps technology and sleigh engineering — will allow you to follow his progress around the world, and also learn a little about some of his stops along the way.[/blockquote]

This year’s Google Santa Village is designed to look like an Advent calendar, with a new activity for each day of December.

For the launch yesterday, Google had a “Present Bounce” game, and today’s activity included a link to an animated “Santa’s Back” YouTube video.

Google’s Daily Countdown to Christmas Calendar

Each day of December will offer a new surprise from Google, counting down the days until December 24, when Santa’s official journey begins.

Google isn’t the only one that regularly tracks Santa’s whereabouts. While Bing hasn’t launched its Santa countdown clock yet, Microsoft has partnered with NORAD for a number of years now to conduct its own Santa tracking.