Christmas Time Fun

Dear GIS users,

First of all I would like to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. Since it is that time of year lets talk about Santa.

Have you or someone you know had to try to explain where Santa is to a child? It is kind of hard if you do not have a good visual aid to show, use GIS. There are some great free maps out there that you can use to show the whole world and use as an example. Like this one from the ESRI ArcGIS Online site.

All you would need after you have this great background is some simple icons to show where Santa is and where you want him to go(your house). If your a preplaner like I know most of you are, you can create a few of these maps before hand and tell them that you have a GPS on Santa's slay and it has all the places that he has stopped. The older the child the more elaborate you would have to make your maps. You can create some custom symbols or use some existing ones.


(Above check marks are the places Santa has been. The Star is where you want Santa to go.)

There are many different ways that you can bring your work home in a fun and exciting way. Next time you are making a map think of how you can make something fun for your family.

I hope everyone out there has a great Holiday Season.