Race with Rudolph and skydive against Santa

MANILA, Philippines - December may mean snow days in Denver, Colorado or beach days in Sydney, Australia, but in Santa’s Village, it means the countdown to Santa’s big night. Starting today, the elves are back on the clock in the North Pole. And throughout the month of December, you can join the elves as they unlock a new project or game each day in preparation for Santa’s annual journey around the world.

The elves have a busy month ahead of them – the reindeer need training and the presents need packing. They’re studying up on Santa’s upcoming stops with candy cane cartography, holiday tradition tests, and even jolly JavaScript courses.

Throughout the holiday celebration, Google’s own developer elves have also been hard at work getting the sleigh tracking algorithm ready for prime time. They’ve been adding finishing touches to the Santa Tracker App for Android so Santa’s just a tap away on phones, tablets, and TVs. The developer elves have been busy, so check out the Chrome extension and keep a watch out for Santa surprises throughout the month.

Whether you’re wearing snow goggles or sunnies this December, come back to www.google.com/santatracker each day to join in on present parachute practice and reindeer races, or to send a call to friends from Santa. There’s only 17 days to go, so follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook and Twitter in the countdown #tracksanta!