| Google And NORAD Start Countdown to Christmas |
| Written by Lucy Black | |||
| Thursday, 01 December 2022 | |||
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It's December 1st - the day on which both Google and NORAD take the wraps off their Santa Trackers that have been in hibernation since the start of the year. Both have a new mini game for kids each day until Christmas Eve plus plenty more activities, both fun and educational, for the whole of December. Online and mobile app Santa Trackers from Norad and Google have been around for some years now. They started as one day events where children could track Santa's progress around the globe on the night of December 24th, but are now more extensive, having accreted additional features year on year enabling fresh excitement to mount during the countdown to Christmas Eve when Santa takes off from the North Pole to deliver presents around the globe. Google's Santa's Village has a new mini-game being unlocked every day from December 1st through 23rd together with a range of holiday activities both fun and educational. This year there are games such as Reindeer Runner, and children can learn to code with the elves via games that will teach the basics of programming, and "Code Boogie" where you write code to coordinate the elves dancing. There's a fun section looking at the ways Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world and what traditions there are, and a map quiz showing the outlines of different countries that Santa visits on his epic journey.
A more creative area has games that let you draw, paint, build and create with all your favorite characters. This part of the village has a canvas with sound-enhanced tools for painting and drawing. There's a wintery sandbox with 3-D wintery materials for assembling snow houses, snowpeople, and other snowy creations. There's also an elf maker and 'Santa Selfie' where you can alter the way Santa looks.
An area designed for the whole family includes daily selections of films at the Village theater, or reading along an interactive storybook as Ollie the Narwhal celebrates the season under the sea.
 Norad too has content for parents and kids. Courtesy of a third part it enables you to send free personalized messages from Santa and there is also a commerical Gift Shop selling clothing for kids and adults. For adult visitors there is information about the current operation of North American Aerospace Defense Command together with the well rehearsed story of how Norad became involved in Santa Tracking - which is also repeated in its Theatre.
 Not to be outdone by Google, Norad has a Library for stories and a Music Sate for Santa's farorite holiday songs. And there's plenty for kids by way of games and activities aimed at children young enough to believe in Santa Claus.
 More InformationRelated ArticlesWhere is Santa? When Will He Arrive? Santa Trackers Part Of Our Tradition Where In The World Is Santa? Google and NORAD Keep Track NORAD Santa Tracker Celebrates Sixty Years Google's Santa Tracker Introduces Coding Lab Track Santa With Google And NORAD
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 23 December 2022 ) |
