Google’s new Santa Tracker to teach kids how to code

2 Dec 2014

Google’s new Santa Tracker page has gone live with a full month of activities, from games and videos, and even a number of coding lessons thrown in.

The Santa Tracker page, which acts as a countdown to Father Christmas’s arrival down the chimney on Christmas Eve, includes a Calendar feature that gives kids up to the second details of Santa’s imminent arrival.

Throughout the month of December elves on the page will unlock a new project or game each day in preparation for Santa’s journey around the world.

As well as tests on Christmas traditions, kids will be taught cartography via a sleigh-tracking algorithm.

Kid-focused Javascript courses will also feature in the run-up to Christmas.

The jolly folk at Google have even thrown in a Santa Tracker App for Android so the busy little engineers can track the great man’s movements.

At some point in the month the page will allow parents to organise voice messages from Santa on any phone they’d like.

Every day a new feature is unveiled. For example yesterday a reindeer racing game was available in the elf village and today a special animated video of Santa in the city is available.

We’re not sure who this site is really aimed at because I have a sneaking suspicion that grown-ups will be spending as much time as kids on this page.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com