Looking to get multiple Gmail calendars on a new Windows Phone 8 handset? The process is similar to what I documented a year ago with Windows Phone 7.5 but there’s one key difference: You don’t set up Gmail using Microsoft Exchange or Active Sync. Instead, Microsoft added the support right in the Google account setup on Windows Phone 8.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that and spent about a half hour this morning trying to set this up. Thanks to Dustin Randall on Twitter, who came to my rescue — as well as several others in the conversation — I now have access to the calendars all of my family members on the HTC Windows Phone 8X review unit that arrived earlier this week. Here’s how you can get multiple Gmail calendars on your own Windows Phone 8 handset:

1. In Settings, email + accounts on a WP8 handset, tap the add an account option and choose Google from the options.
2. Enter your full Gmail address, password and then hit next.
3. On the next screen, choose the “Email, contacts, and calendar” option and then tap the sign in button. NOTE: These three steps are standard for Google setup even if you don’t want to sync multiple calendars.
4. Open up Internet Explorer on the phone and navigate to http://m.google.com/sync
5. Sign in to your Google account on the web page to see any mobile devices associated with your Google account; for me that’s multiple iOS devices, old Nokia phones and, of course, the new Windows Phone 8 handset.
6. Find your Windows Phone 8 device and tap it.
7. On the next screen you should see a list of all Gmail calendars associated with your Google account. Choose the calendars you want on your Windows Phone 8 device and tap the Save button.
   

That’s it; within a minute or two, your handset should sync and you’ll see the multiple Gmail calendars on your phone. If you try to set Google up as an Exchange/Active Sync account the options to choose different calendars on the Google Sync site won’t appear, so make sure you choose Google during the account setup.