Google Doodle

[Update: Day 3] Animated Google Doodles and easter eggs celebrate the holiday season

Kyle Bradshaw | Dec 25 2019 - 12:00 am PT

This week, Google is ringing in the holiday season with a series of Doodles and easter eggs to wish you a “Happy Holidays 2019!”

No matter which traditions you’re celebrating this holiday season, Google wants to make sure you have a happy one. The eight nights of Hanukkah began Sunday evening, and searching for “Hanukkah 2019” from desktop reveals a charming family scene featuring dreidels. Looking a bit closer into how it was designed, the number of lit candles on the menorah will change as the celebration continues.

Other holidays this season are treated to an equally happy animated scene, with “Christmas 2019” revealing a tree in the process of being decorated. Similarly, Googling “Kwanzaa 2019” gives you an animation of a family surrounding a kinara.

Meanwhile, Festivus, the alternative, not so happy holiday celebrated on Monday, has been given the same treatment in 2019 as it has for the last six years, with a seasonal Festivus pole that stretches the entirety of the search results page.

Google has also redecorated their homepage with a doodle in celebration of the 2019 holiday season. Today, Google fans are entreated to a trio of illuminating candles surrounded by a sprig of holly.

On closer inspection of the Doodle’s entry in the Google Doodle blog, we find that it’s very clearly labeled as “Happy Holidays 2019 (Day 1)”. From this name, we assume that Google may be revamping their homepage Doodle with a new way to wish you a “Happy Holidays” for the next few days, if not the rest of the year. We’ll be keeping an eye out for each new holiday Google Doodle as they arrive.

Update 12/24: It’s Christmas Eve, and Google has rolled out part two of their mini-series of holiday Doodles. The latest replaces the holly and candle glow with a rotating snow globe. With every turn, the scene within the globe switches between winter and summer, reflecting the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively.

Additionally, Google updated the search text for the doodle series to be about the “holiday season” instead of wishing a “Happy Holidays 2019!” We’ve similarly updated this article to reflect that.

Update 12/25: Christmas Day has finally arrived, and Google has released a third holiday season Doodle. The Christmas Doodle features two ornaments standing in for the “oo” in Google and the company logo wrapped in Christmas tree lights.