Google’s Santa Tracker is here.
As Christmas arrives around the world, Google has turned on its Santa tracker for following Jolly Saint Nick as he delivers gifts across the globe.
The Santa tracker site has a real-time “tracker” of Santa’s path, with Kris Kringle leaving Madagascar around 11 a.m. PT. Beyond following the path, Google also has a running “gifts delivered” counter and an updating “next stop” listing for where Santa is heading. In a nod to reality, Santa is wearing a purple face mask to keep himself and others safe from COVID-19 (though he apparently already got a dose of vaccine).
The site is similar to NORAD’s Santa tracker, the long-running annual project of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Google’s tracker doubles as a cute way to entertain kids with a handful of mini-games including one called Elf Glider where, on a computer, you use a keyboard to serve as one of Santa’s elves on a hang glider, pressing the space bar to drop presents into chimneys while avoiding obstacles. It’s all a nice bit of fun ahead of the holiday.
At time of writing, per Google’s tracker, Santa is expected to arrive in the United States in around 9 hours.
5 fun ways to use Google’s Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
1. Enter Santatracker.google.com on your mobile or desktop browser. Mobile users can tap to add Santa to their home screen.
There, now Santa’s photo-ready.
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET
2. You can passively see Santa’s current location and explore the globe. If you get too far, tap the icon of the Santa hat to immediately snap back to the jolly one on his sleigh.
3. Click or tap the “hamburger” menu of three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of your screen to interact with Santa and his friends in different ways. For example, you can make Santa presentable for a selfie and get in a snowball fight.
4. Keep the sound on to hear festive music and elf laughter as Santa cuts his path around the globe, or click or tap the mute button if you prefer to enjoy Father Christmas in silence.
5. Keep scrolling down to play winter and Christmas-related games with animated elves. Google’s website says the site will remain live through December.