Tis the season: Christmas starts with a Google Doodle

Google has begun the countdown to Christmas with the first in a series of its popular festive Google Doodles

Google's opening Google Doodle for Christmas 2014 Photo: Google

10:35AM GMT 23 Dec 2014

The search engine Google has begun its annual countdown to Christmas with a special Google Doodle.

The animated picture, depicting a snow scene with children on a sleigh pulled by a reindeer, is captioned 'Tis The Season, and is the first of Google's series of festive Doodles.

The search engine usually launches a Christmas series of pictures between December 21 and 23, and this year's appears to take inspiration from the lyrics to Deck the Halls.

A Google Doodle is a drawing or animation that takes over the brand's logo space on its home page, often to mark an anniversary.

The first Google Doodle appeared in 1998 to celebrate the Burning Man music festival. Over the years, it has been used to commemorate the 255th anniversary of the British Museum, days of independence, and the births of influential people.