In today’s world, everyone leaves a digital footprint – even the ever elusive Santa Claus as he treks around the world with his magical reindeer delivering presents.
And while the serious business of tracking Santa has become a tradition for the military at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), this year’s online trackers have literally taken on a life of their own.
For example, why wait to map Santa’s trip to your house on Christmas Eve, when you can be right in the middle of the action and live in his village leading up to the big day.
That is just one of the interactive features of Google’s Santa tracker this year, as it goes up against former partner Norad, which has teamed up with Microsoft for a second time on its tracker.
Santa’s village
Since the beginning of December, Google users have been able to join elves in unlocking a new project or game each day that reveals a new part of an interactive snowy village designed to look like Santa’s home.
Each building or monument houses games that range from slinging presents onto giant rubber duck boats driven by elves to helping the little people practice throwing presents down moving chimneys.
-BBC
