Santa Claus and GEarth

[Appletom]

OK - Christmas is about the celebration of the birth of Christ. However, that fat jolly guy in the red suit is what attracts the attention of the little ones.

So - how can I make something so that GEarth will show the travels of Santa Claus? If you've never been to NoradSanta.org on Christmas eve, you are missing a really cool presentation. But it would be so much better in GEarth - especially for my granddaughter, Grace, who will be with us this Christmas. (Grace loves "the world" on my computer - so much that her parents had to uninstall GEarth on their own computer because Grace learned how to open it. Grace is five years old!)

How could something be built that will refresh every 15 or 20 minutes, moving to another area of the globe, with a photo of a local Santa (Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, et .al.) and a short story about the culture of the country that Santa is 'visiting' at that time?

I'm sure it would be more that a kmz file, so that takes a project like this out of my abilities. But when I see GEWar armies moving, and jewels being planted at random, all by some remote server, then I know that someone can incorporate Santa's travels on December 24/25 into a great GEarth presentation.

I've done a Google search for "Santa Claus"+"Google Earth" and nobody has done this yet - I think it would be extremely cool. And Grace would have yet another reason to think that her Grandpa is the best Grandfather on earth!

[jammo]

sounds like a great idea, and there are files in GEH that I have looked at that can track live plane movements, traffic flows etc, so i don't think that it would be too hard.

(although i have no idea how to do it.)

[cowtreky]

Apptom you are right about NORAD, the spent alot of money trying to track Santa Claus around the world.

A lot of fun.

[WaywardTraveller]

Wonderful Idea! I hope someone can help figure this out!
If you do, I'll be watching with my son christmas eve! (First christmas where he 'gets' it, 2 1/2 now)

[phil-ray]

have to say fantastic idea

i would say he would be moving ferly quickly and it would have to be in real time, more or less

even if its updated every minute or so it would do lol

[BradG7]

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only one problem, does anyone know 2 do such a thing?

[Appletom]

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only one problem, does anyone know 2 do such a thing?

Regretfully, I can only come up with grand programing ideas, not solutions

Surely one of the web geniuses here on GEH knows how. Rasqual, come back...

This would be such a natural tie in with GEarth, and it would be sooooooo much fun and would impress the everything out of any child age 2½ to 99.

[Appletom]

I did another search for "Google Earth Santa Claus" and lo and behold someone named GEROCS4EVR took my post that started this thread and copy/pasted it word for word on the keyhole bbs - http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthrea...?Number=233833

He/she didn't even have the courtesy to mention GEH.

I don't mind someone spreading my request to keyhole, but at least start the post with "Hey, I saw this on GEH. What a great idea - can anybody make a GEarth Santa Tracker?"

But I am glad he/she did take the post to keyhole bbs because Penguin Opus, a sysop there, said "For those thinking about attempting this... I will be doing something this year. Scale/volume is a big issue (as we discovered last year), but I think we have a plan."

[Appletom]

PenguinOpus from Keyhole BBS comes through!

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthrea.../page/0#244509

[IOHBOY]

Heh, NORAD says he is in Germany, Google Earth says he is in India!

[KB7TBT]

I have found live tracking by Google Earth, I have uploaded the KLM file but it has yet to be aproved..

http://www.googleearthhacks.com/user...php?user=30175

This file can also be found at www.googleearth.com on the front page.

[Geospin]

Check this out exactly what you were talking about.
www.geolistings.com/santa

[olegas]

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

olegas