Friday, December 25, 2026

Christmas 2026

Christmas Day at our house — Vivian's first Christmas. For now this page holds the early details and the Santa Tracker; the full Christmas plans fill in as the day gets closer.

Hosted by Kyle & Amanda · No RSVP — family just comes

A decorated Christmas tree with glowing lights, red and gold ornaments, stockings on the mantel, presents underneath, and snow falling outside the window
Our Christmas mood board — the tree isn't up yet, but this is exactly the dream: lights, stockings, and snow outside.

The basics

Date
Friday, December 25, 2026
Where
Kyle and Amanda Hoskinson
345 Cormorant Dr, Norwalk, IA 50211
Start time
To be confirmed
Details fill in as Christmas gets closer.
Christmas Eve
Santa Tracker night
The tracker below is built for the family TV on Christmas Eve — big status, the radar, and a countdown to Santa reaching Norwalk.

Forecast — early outlook

Early outlook (not the real forecast yet): late December in Norwalk usually means proper Iowa winter — plan on cold weather and warm layers for the trip over. This block switches to the real daily forecast once Christmas is inside the 10-day forecast range, and the forecast shown that day stays on this page when it's archived.

Santa Tracker

For the TV on Christmas Eve. Try the demo flight any time — it runs the whole route in about two and a half minutes. On December 24, switch to live mode: Santa leaves the North Pole at 5:00 PM Central and reaches Norwalk at 9:00 PM (that arrival time is adjustable — Kyle sets the real one). The map is our own drawing, made for this page, so it always works.

Hoskinson Family Santa Tracker

Santa is at the North Pole, checking the list twice.

Pick a mode below to start tracking.

N ↑ North Pole 🎅 Fairbanks 🌌 Seattle ☕ San Francisco 🌉 Denver ⛷️ Dallas ⭐ Minneapolis 🧊 Chicago 🍕 St. Louis 🏛️ Kansas City 🍖 Des Moines 🌽 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 🎁 IOWA CLOSE-UP Des Moines 🏡 Norwalk — home! 🎁 Our own map, drawn for this page. Not to scale — but Santa's directions are excellent.

Stops tonight

  • • North Pole
  • • Fairbanks, Alaska
  • • Seattle
  • • San Francisco
  • • Denver
  • • Dallas
  • • Minneapolis
  • • Chicago
  • • St. Louis
  • • Kansas City
  • • Des Moines
  • • Norwalk

Hoskinson Family Radar

  • Presents delivered0
  • Cookies & milk collected0
  • Sleigh speedAt the gate
  • Rudolph's noseWarming up
  • On point right nowDasher

Reindeer roll call

Dasher · Dancer · Prancer · Vixen · Comet · Cupid · Donner · Blitzen · and Rudolph, on the nose.

🎄 The Nice List — Norwalk

Radar confirms two names in very good standing at 345 Cormorant Dr:

Vera Hoskinson — nice list, third year running.
Vivian Hoskinson — nice list, first Christmas, already a lock.

Mom and Dad are listed as "pretty good, considering." Santa has noted the cookie situation approvingly.

Sightings: Radar warming up…

The tracker is a bonus on this page — the map is drawn right into the page itself, so there's nothing external left to break.

Photos from the day

Photos from Christmas Day land here after the day — then this page is finished and rolls into Past Gatherings as its own permanent page.

Until then

Before Christmas, it's Thanksgiving's turn — and right now the home page is featuring Halloween 2026. The full year is on the family calendar.