Google “Play Dreidel” Search Returns Digital Version Of Hanukkah Spinning Toy

In years past, Google has decorated its search result pages for the holidays, offering up Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa-themed images for holiday-related searches.

This year, now nearly half way through Hanukkah, there have been no signs of Google’s usual holiday spirit when you search “Hanukkah,” “Christmas” or “Kwanzaa.” When we reached out to ask if the company had plans to do any holiday decorations, a Google spokesperson confirmed there would be no holiday-themed images on search pages, but insisted it wasn’t playing Grinch.

“No, G is not for Grinch,” said a Google spokesperson in an email to Search Engine Land. “We might not be decking the halls of our search results pages this year, but we’re still spreading holiday cheer in a few other ways throughout the season.”

Google shared a link to its Santa Tracker which launched last week and pointed us toward its “Play Dreidel” Easter egg — a digital version of the traditional four-sided spinning toy played during Hanukkah.

Google searches for “play dreidel” deliver an automated dreidel that lets users spin to land on one of its four sides that contain the Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimel, He and Shin.

Here is a collection of last year’s holiday imagery that was included in holiday-related searches.

Hanukkah Search Images

Christmas Search Images

Kwanzaa Search Images