Google marks Winter Solstice, the shortest day of a year, with a wooly GIF doodle

Today, December 21, will mark the official onset of winter for the season. So as the mercury dips, Google welcomes winter on it's shortest day with its trademark doodle. And what better way to end a year that saw the invasive comeback of the GIFs with a GIF doodle!

In what is now an aeonian tradition, these cozy mittens will grace Google's homepage for the shortest day on Earth.

So what is the Winter Solstice?
Many of us have already experienced the chills of this year with consistently dropping temperatures. Derived from the Latin words sol for Sun and sist for stop, today, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, is considered the shortest day of the year, and so technically also the coldest.