Google's Thursday homepage doodle includes a collection of holiday scenes created by the company's "chief doodler," Michael Lopez.

The 17 scenes include an "Up on the Housetop" drawing of Santa approaching a snowy chimney as well as several other doodles representing holiday traditions around the world. They include: a Buche de Noel, a traditional Christmas dessert enjoyed in many French-speaking countries; a depiction of three women performing a classical Indian dance; several men performing on an oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern music; and Morroccan henna lamps.

Hover over the images for a larger view, and click them for an explanation of their significance.

Lopez told the Wall Street Journal that it took about 250 hours to create the doodles. He personally drew six while the rest were divided up among his staff. Initially, he thought the 17 drawings woudl be staggered over the course of several days, but Google later said they wanted to display them as a group.

Lopez has been chief doodler for 18 months; in 2010 alone, there have been 270 doodles, the Journal said.

Visitors to Google.com can view the doodles, which went live at 9am today, for 2.5 days.

Several Google doodles have made a splash this year, including one that celebrated the late jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie on what would have been his 93rd birthday, as well as the would-be birthday of author Robert Louis Stevenson. Prior to that, John Lennon's would-be 70th birthday was celebrated with a video doodle set to the song "Imagine."

Doodles have marked several other different significant dates events this year including the Flintstones' 50th anniversary and 30 years of Pac-Man.