Door 24 · Runner
Christmas Eve Run: Day 24 of Sunburnt Santa
The big night: Santa drives the ute across a moonlit outback, jumping roos, wombats, emus and cassowaries to deliver Christmas to every capital city. It's faster than Day 1, the presents are worth double, and the bin chickens fly low.
How to play Christmas Eve Run
- Tap to jump. Hold for a bigger jump. Tap again in the air to double jump. It is faster than Day 1, so look sharp.
- Roos, wombats, emus, standing cassowaries, and later a low-flying ibis you must NOT jump into.
- Every 300 m you deliver a capital city. Presents are worth double.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Every metre driven | 1 |
| Each animal you get past | 10 |
| Near miss (a close clearance) | 100 |
| Present | 100 |
| Gold present | 500 |
| Capital city delivered | every 300 m |
Presents in a row build a multiplier: x2 from 5, x3 from 10, up to x5 from 20, so a gold present at x5 is 2,500. A present you drive past resets it. One hit and the night is over. Cities come in order: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Canberra.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Don't jump the ibis. From 500 m, bin chickens (Australian white ibis) fly across at head height, and a jump takes you straight into them. Stay on the road and let them pass overhead.
- Presents are worth double tonight and the multiplier reaches x5, so they matter more than distance. Every present you miss resets the streak; follow the arcs and lines of presents even when it means a slightly earlier jump.
- It starts faster than Ute Run and speeds up quicker. Tap for a short jump, hold for a bigger one, and keep the double jump (a second tap in the air) for when two animals come close together, which happens more after 250 m. Cassowaries stand still on the road from 250 m: just jump them.
The real story: how a wrong number started the Santa tracker
The Santa tracker that children check on Christmas Eve started with a misprint. In 1955 a Sears ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a phone number to call Santa, but the number was wrong: it rang the secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command, the forerunner of NORAD [1]. Colonel Harry Shoup answered, played along, and when the children kept calling he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act as Santa [1]. The tracking tradition grew from there.
Christmas Eve in Australia has its own rituals too. One of the best known began in Melbourne on Christmas Eve 1938, when radio presenter Norman Banks's first Carols by Candlelight drew 10,000 carollers to Alexandra Gardens [2].
In Christmas Eve Run, Santa has no reindeer to spare, so it's the ute, a full tray and a long night across the country, ticking off the capitals one by one. For the rest of the season, from carols to cricket, see Christmas in Australia.
Read more: Christmas in Australia: the complete guide.
When it opens
Door 24 opens on day 24 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 24 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Ute Run, Hot Sand Sprint.
Sources for the real story
- NORAD's Santa tracker began with a typo and a good sport, NPR
- An Aussie tradition: Carols by Candlelight, Australian Geographic