Google continued the holiday cheer today with a homepage doodle that highlights the symbols of the season.
In an image reminiscent of a Lite-Brite, Google spells out its logo with a snowflake, Santa Claus, a bell, snowman, candle, and a present. When you first click on the logo, though, there will be six blinking lights below the Google name. Click them to dim the background lights and turn on the Christmas lights. Once all the images are lit up, they will begin to dance to "Jingle Bells."
This is not Google's first holiday-related surprise for its users. Last weekend, the company published one of its Easter Eggs: searching for the term "let it snow" (without quotes) produced some snowy search results that allowed users to "draw" on the snow-covered screen. Searching for "Hanukkah" and "Christmas," meanwhile, also produced search results enhanced by holiday lights.
Earlier in the week, Google went live with Santa's Google Voice number (855-34-SANTA), which lets kids call the man in red directly from a Gmail account and leave a message. There's also the option to craft a message that will be sent to the child (or grownup) of choice.
If you need something a little more visual, Google-owned YouTube is also offering special video messages from a cartoon Santa, which can be customized to suit the name and specific tastes of the recipient.
Also on YouTube, users can click a new snowflake icon to "make it snow" atop the videos. The snowflakes will gather at the bottom of the screen, eventually obscuring your view, unless you click the snowflake again to clear it. To create your own customized snow scene, meanwhile, Snowify.me lets users enter an address and create a personalized holiday card using Google Street View imagery and digital snow.
Last year, Google replaced its logo with a collection of holiday scenes created by the company's "chief doodler." The 17 scenes included 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 included: 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 Moroccan henna lamps.
For more on Google's doodles, meanwhile, see the slideshow below. One of the company's more popular doodles was a playable image in honor of musician Les Paul, which eventually got its own standalone site. The company has also honored Gumby creator Art Clokey, Muppets creator Jim Henson, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, and Intel co-founder Robert Noyce.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Google obtained a patent for its popular homepage doodles, covering "systems and methods for enticing users to access a Web site."