Google’s out with its Happy Holidays 2013 series doodles for Christmas and quite predictably, it does not say Merry Christmas. George Jacob Holyoake, the guy who invented the word ‘secularism,’ is probably rolling around in his grave.
Because whether it’s more polite to say Happy Holidays instead of mentioning the name of the festival due to which we get to celebrate days off our dreary routines, is still a debatable issue among many folks.
So it’s not surprising that Mountain View chose to stay out of any controversy. Call it political correctness gone crazy. On Christmas Eve the company put out a doodle showing two kids. They appeared to be riding a one horse open sleigh and you could see three tree bare of leaves in the background.
It had the appearance of a quaint little Christmas card. Hovering over the image surfaced the words Happy Holidays from Google! and today, there’s a new one declaring ‘Tis the season! to anyone who cares to mouse over it. The picture depicts an urban landscape with lit up buildings, someone driving home a ‘Holiday Tree’ and so on.
See how the company has firmly refused to spell out the traditional greeting? Last year’s doodle showed a land filled with toys on December 24th and 25th. 2011’s holiday season art was an interactive one with Santa Claus, a snowman, a snow flake, a candle, a gift box and a bell all lit up against a black background.
The very first image you see on the left hand, top corner of the image posted below, shows Google’s very first doodle in 1998. It was sketched out to commemorate the Burning Man festival that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin attended in the Nevada desert.
The company’s chief doodler is Dennis Hwang at present. What do you think about Google’s Happy Holidays scribble? Too politically correct?