The interactive site counts down to Christmas with fun games that teach children about the geography and different traditional holidays. Every day a new educational game will be added to the site.
The site began as a project headed by a few Google Earth employees as part of the company’s 20 percent project, a programme initiated by Google in which employees are required to spend 20 percent of their time with their own projects.
The site mirrors the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) Tracks Santa programme. The programme, which was established in 1955, gives children all the around the world the opportunity to contact Norad who would give them the whereabouts of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
The Google Santa Tracker acts as a 21st Century update giving children the opportunity to watch Santa Claus’s travel route on Christmas Eve from their computer on Google Maps, where users get behind the helm of Santa’s high-tech sleigh dashboard and watch his movements from the North Pole.
