SANTA is once again donning his iconic red suit and setting off around the world delivering presents to children in Ireland and beyond.
Whizzing across the continents Santa, Rudolph and the rest of the reindeers have a long night ahead of them but if you want to follow along you can thanks to the North American Aerospace Defence Command, also known as NORAD.
NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defence Command (CONAD), began tracking Santa in 1955 when a child accidentally rang the organisation asking to speak to Father Christmas after a newspaper ran an festive advert containing a misprinted phone number.
Luckily Commanding Officer Colonel Harry Shoup who answered the phone that Christmas Eve realised the mistake and filled in for Saint Nick.
As more calls came in that night, Commander Shoup assigned another officer to continue answering the phones and instructed his staff to check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.
This sparked a tradition that has continued to delight children all over the world for almost 70 years.
Nowadays NORAD has an online tracker so children can watch Santa in real-time. This year’s website launched on December 1 and tonight it will display Santa’s location from 6am to 2am on Christmas Day.
Additionally, families can send an email to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com and a NORAD staff member will give you Santa’s last known location in a return email. Or download NORAD’s Santa Tracker app which is available in both the app and Google Play store.
According to the NORAD website, Santa “historically vistis the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia.
“After that, he shoots up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.
“NORAD coordinates with Santa’s Elf Launch Staff to confirm his launch time, but from that point on Santa calls the shots.”
NORAD also have Santa Cams in space which take videos of him as he makes his way to each destination. These videos appear almost every hour on Christmas Eve.
Tracking Santa has never been easier. You can find out his whereabouts on Christmas Eve, as well as enjoying other fun activities, just by clicking here.
Alternatively, Google have also launched their very own fun Santa tracker, which you can watch here.
