Google has been paying tribute to the most important personalities in history, showing its sympathy during disasters and tragedies, and celebrating with the rest of the world during the most festive occasions of mankind. Christmas, of course, is one special event in almost every corner of the globe and it seems Google has been bitten by the Christmas bug.
While everyone is busy doing their last-minute shopping online, the search engine giant quietly installed an animated graphic on its Search page complete with snow, pine trees, Santa Claus, the red-nosed Rudolph and the rest of the gang.
The homepage of Google Search initially appears normal but magically gets transformed when you try to search for the words "Christmas," "Xmas," or "Santa Claus." The animation serves as background for the banner of Google services but it will not appear if you enter other words such as "Scrooge" or "Scroogled."
Focusing on the words that activate the animation, Christmas is an annual celebration recalling the birth of Jesus Christ. Billions of Christians around the globe have been commemorating the birth of their Savior since 354 AD.
The word "Xmas" is a popular abbreviation of Christmas. Some are offended when this used thinking that "Christ" is omitted from the word but according to experts, "X" is an abbreviation of the Greek word for for Christ where "X" represents "chi" in Greek.
Enter "Santa Claus" on Google Search and the first page results will give you a range of "official" Santa pages, news about the jolly old man, movies about the gift-giving saint, and the site of the NORAD Santa tracker.
Santa Claus is actually St. Nicholas who was born in Turkey during the third century. He was born to a rich family and after his parents died, St. Nicholas followed the teachings of Christ to help the needy, the suffering, and the poor. He became a bishop of the church but later on fell victim to the persecutions of the Roman empire. The actual feast day in his honor is on December 6. Legends about his character eventually evolved to what we know about him today, from the North Pole workshop, reindeer and elves, and him coming to homes by passing through chimneys.
In 2011, Google serenaded its users with a Jingle Bells Google Doodle.
"Winters everywhere can be cold and dark with short days and long nights. It's no coincidence, then, that many cultures incorporate lights and decoration into their winter holidays that fall around the winter solstice. And that theme inspired our holiday doodle this year," wrote Google software engineer Nathan Naze that year.
In 2012, the Google Doodle team posted two holiday themed doodles on December 24 and 25 depicting a "Land of Toys" theme.
It is not yet certain what the Google Doodle team will offer this year but after running the Crossword Puzzle centennial tribute, it will be safe to assume that the Santa animated banner on its homepage is just the tip of the iceberg for its holiday series.
