The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa Claus's route on his Christmas journey around the world for the seventh decade in a row. This year the tradition celebrates its 70th anniversary.

On December 24th, NORAD again launched an interactive map on the website noradsanta.org, where you can track Santa's movements in real time. The journey begins from the North Pole, and experts use satellite technology to track the sleigh's route in the sky.

How the Santa Tracker Works

NORAD's Santa tracking operations center works around the clock on December 24th. More than a thousand Canadian and American military personnel, civilian Department of Defense employees, and local volunteers at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs answer hundreds of thousands of phone calls from around the world.

Children can call 1-877-446-6723 (1-877-HI-NORAD) to get current information about Santa's location from operators. The line operates from 4:00 AM Mountain Time (6:00 AM Eastern) until midnight.

Last year, operators handled 380 thousand calls during Christmas Eve.

Route and Arrival Time

According to NORAD, Santa's journey begins by moving down the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. The first stops are the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. Then Santa moves through China and Russia, then to Europe and Africa, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Canada, the USA, Mexico, and Central and South America.

NORAD experts report that Santa usually makes stops between 9:00 PM and midnight on December 24th local time, but the exact arrival time at a specific house is impossible to predict.

"Only Santa knows his route, so we can't predict where and when he will arrive at your house. However, history shows that he only arrives when children are asleep," NORAD notes.

History of the Tradition

The tradition began in 1955 when a child accidentally called the Continental Air Defense Command operations center (NORAD's predecessor) after seeing an advertisement in the newspaper offering to call Santa. The employee who answered the call didn't want to disappoint the child and engaged in conversation, which started the annual tradition.

NORAD took on these responsibilities in 1958 when the organization was created.

Alternative Tracking Methods

In addition to NORAD's official website, Google also offers its own Santa tracker at santatracker.google.com, which operates on December 24th and 25th. Google has been tracking Santa's Christmas journey since 2004 and calculated that it lasts 25 hours.

Updates are also published on NORAD's pages on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Information is available in nine languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean.