Another calendar-marking day, another Google Doodle to celebrate the event. It’s Christmas Day, and there’s a themed surprise waiting to be played with at www.google.com. Load up the search page and you’ll see an array of square-shaped, colored lights. Click them in any order you like to replace the six letters in G-O-O-G-L-E with holiday-themed items. Complete the sequence and you’ll be treated to a rendition of “Jingle Bells” and then be sent off to a Google search page for the term “Happy Holidays.”
You might not know it, but Google keeps an archive of its various Doodles over the years. The 2010 holiday image was a lot more complex, with a collection of 17 framed paintings that would expand when hovered over and link to relevant search pages when clicked (that interactivity is gone in the archive; you just get the image).
The first late-December holiday Doodle appeared in 1999, but a similar-looking graphic appeared the previous year, in celebration of Thanksgiving. 1998 was also marks the first year that Google switched up its search page to mark an event. The event in question? Burning Man. Yay trivia!
