It’s Christmas Eve! One of the most magical parts of Christmas is keeping track of where Santa is as he delivers gifts all across the world. And NORAD provides one of the best ways to keep track of where Santa is. In fact, you can see a live feed of Santa’s current location with his reindeer above. The video won’t show much until Santa is finally about ready to take off, so stay patient until the fun begins! Live streams do have a tendency to sometimes go down, so there are more from NORAD later in this story in case this one stops working.
Where is he right now? You can get more details and see a beautiful 3D map by visiting NORAD’s website right here. Here’s what the map looks like when you zoom out all the way.
In its 62nd year, the Santa Tracker comes courtesy of NORAD. Santa also has a warehouse that is accepting calls and emails. While Santa travels, the NORAD social media team is hard at work answering all your questions online and answering phone calls too. If your child wants to call Santa and chat with him, call 1-877-HI-NORAD. Here, you can see Santa preparing for his big 2017 trip:
Want a little more information about NORAD’s Santa Tracker while you’re following Santa’s travels? Here are some details for your Christmas Eve. NORAD’s Santa Tracker began when a SEARS Roebuck & Co. ad included the top secret number to the predecessor to NORAD, the Continental Air Defense Command. A little girl called and spoke to Director of Operations Colonel Harry Shoup, who told her he could help her locate Santa. The Colonel instructed his staff to help pinpoint Santa’s location for similar calls that Christmas Eve of 1955. NORAD has kept the tradition going ever since.
Did You Know That Rudolph’s Nose Mimics the Heat Signature of a Missile Launch?
The radar system used to track Santa and Rudolph is the North Warning System. The satellites NORAD uses to detect the flash generated from missile launches can also track Santa.
Google Has its Own Santa Tracker that You Can Watch Below
Nowadays, there are two ways to track Santa. One, using NORAD’s tracker, and one using Google’s. You can watch Google track Santa on its maps here or in the livestream above, right next to NORAD’s. Santa’s track and location might appear different on Google and NORAD because of a space-time continuum issue, which we explain in detail later in this story.
Google began working with NORAD in 2007, but five years later it launched its own service. The two services sometimes give slightly different estimates for Santa’s arrival, sometimes with estimates being about two to four hours different. Time-space fluctuations may account for these differences, so don’t worry if you’re watching Santa on Google and NORAD and the results look different. NORAD says that Santa lives in a different time-space continuum, which is how he manages to deliver billions of presents in just a day. A page on the Santa Tracker mobile app tells more:
His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa it might last days, weeks or even months. Santa would not want to rush the important job of delivering presents to children and spreading joy to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.
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Santa Tracker 2017: Track Santa Live on Christmas Eve Here