The season to be jolly is upon us and with the festive fervor in the air and Christmas preparations in full swing, it is not long before Santa will be on his way to pay a visit. To help you keep track of good old Saint Nick's activities, Google has launched its Santa Tracker app for Android devices.

"Celebrate the holiday season with the Google Santa Tracker app for Android. Santa's developer elves have created this app to follow Santa on his December 24th journey as he delivers gifts to children all over the world," notes the app's description.

Despite NORAD deserting Google Maps in favor of Bing Maps earlier in December this year, Google was not deterred and launched its own app.

Google announced the Santa Tracker app for Android on Wednesday, Dec. 19, which will enable those interested to take a trip down Santa's hometown in the North Pole and follow his journey as he sets about delivering gifts this Christmas.

"While we've been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated Google Maps engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa's journey around the world on Christmas Eve," noted Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth, via the official Google blog post.

Currently, the app doesn't do a lot and one can only espy the countdown screen as to when Santa will take off on his sleigh. The Google Santa Tracker app will start working from Monday, Dec. 24 from 2:00 AM PST as the jolly man in the red suit sets off on his journey. Users can follow Santa on Google Maps and Google Earth via google.com/santatracker.

The app also treats users to Santa-based information like the number of presents delivered, the route he will take, and when he will reach where you're located. All this information is displayed using Google Maps.

There's also a mini sleigh racing game that you can play, and the workshop and cafeteria are quite interesting. What's more, users can even visit Santa's Village to see the countdown clock and catch the elves in action. Users can even request Santa to call a friend or family between 8am and 9pm.

However, this feature only works for those in North America. Alternately, users can ask Santa to send the Christmas greetings via e-mail or Google+.

Users can add the Chrome extension or download the Android app to keep pace with Santa on their smartphone or/and tablet. Additionally, to get the latest updates, users can follow Google Maps on either Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Check out the Santa Tracker app now.

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