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Google Doodle has Santa Claus set for holiday deliveries

As we count down the hours till Christmas, Google has Santa and his sleigh in mind.

Jon Skillings Editorial director
Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where he's worked since 2000. A born browser of dictionaries, he honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing for tech publications -- including at PC Week and the IDG News Service -- back when the web was just getting under way, and even a little before. For CNET, he's written on topics from GPS, AI and 5G to James Bond, aircraft, astronauts, brass instruments and music streaming services.
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  • 30 years experience at tech and consumer publications, print and online. Five years in the US Army as a translator (German and Polish).
Jon Skillings
2 min read

In the hours leading up to Christmas on Sunday, elves loaded Santa's sleigh with gifts.

Google

And then on the day of Christmas Eve, Monday, Santa dropped gifts down a chimney. 

Google

Twas the doodle before Christmas and all through the 'net, Google's elves were a-stirring to get us all set.

As gift-givers shifted from shopping to wrapping, the holiday turkey began to thaw, and advent calendars got down to their last unopened window, Sunday's Google Doodle showed us the man of the hour getting ready for his annual mission around the world. The first of several lightly animated holiday doodles showed a trio of elves flinging presents into Santa's sleigh as the reindeer awaited clearance for takeoff.

That image reached many countries in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Greeting folks in the UK, Italy and sub-Saharan Africa was a static, non-Santa illustration, filled with items including tree branches and flowers, cook pot and teakettle, a lone reindeer and a brace of birds (apparently not turtle doves, though).

On Monday, Christmas Eve, Google offered a day-two Santa-themed doodle with an illustration of Santa Claus dropping gifts down a chimney in a snowy suburban landscape. The second-day image for the southern hemisphere shows Santa dropping gifts but not through chimneys. And the image for the UK, Italy and sub-Saharan Africa was a new, non-Santa holiday illustration.

Google is also ready with a Christmas Day doodle, for both hemispheres, featuring Santa and his team napping after their big night. 

Google has been decorating its homepage with near-daily doodles for 20 years, a tradition that started with a simple line drawing to mark an outing to the Burning Man festival by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin . Since then, the whimsical and sometimes interactive illustrations have celebrated everything from poets to Pac-Man and from Halloween to Bastille Day.

Our Favorite Google Doodles Through the Years

See all photos
Watch this: How Google made a Doodle game

Behold Google 20th anniversary Doodle: Take a look back at popular searches since 1998.

Google in 2018: Its workers found voice in protest this year. There will likely be more of that.

First published Dec. 23 at 9:29 a.m. PT.
Update Dec. 24 at 9:15 a.m. PT.: Adds Christmas Eve doodle and a preview of the Christmas Day doodle.