NORAD’s Santa Tracker is now live and you can see where he is in real time.
Santa will shortly take to the skies on his epic trip around the world to deliver presents to every child who has been nice this year.
Hopefully you’ve got some mince pies or biscuits ready for the big man arriving. Don’t forget to put some lovely carrots out for the reindeer too.
If you want to make reindeer food yourself before bed then remember they love to eat plain oats. They hate glitter too, so just nice fresh oats – the RSPCA has some really great information on this.
Where is Santa right now?
At the moment Santa is at the North Pole preparing for lift-off. He’s checking that he has everyone’s presents and making sure the reindeer have been fed enough to power them on the first part of their trip.
How fast does Santa travel?
With a total route of more than 300,000,000 miles Santa needs to move quickly. NORAD estimates he’s moving at 1,800 miles per second.
How many houses does Santa visit?
Santa needs to hit 390,000 homes per minute to hit his target. In total he’s going to around 75 million houses over Christmas night. Thank goodness he’s been getting years of practice.
How do I find out where Santa is?
Well, if you fancy making an international call then the NORAD hotline is 00-1-719-556-5211.
You can track him online using the official NORAD Tracks Santa website.
You can also email [email protected] to find out where the big man is currently.
There are also apps for both Android and iOS that will help you keep tabs on Santa.
What is NORAD?
NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the organisation responsible for monitoring Canadian and US airspace.
Although mostly intended to detect threats to the US from air attacks NORAD is well-placed to keep an eye out for Santa and as such can reassure children that he is both on his way to their house, and being kept safe.
NORAD says that as long as Santa enters US airspace it has a responsibility to track his festive activities and those of every other aircraft over North America.
How did NORAD start tracking Santa?
Before NORAD existed its predecessor was called Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). In 1955 a misprinted advert for a Santa hotline led to calls ending up being answered by Colonel Harry Shoup.
Shoup ordered staff to give updates to callers about where Santa was and a tradition was born. These days even Presidents and First Ladies participate in the NORAD Santa phoneline.
Now NORAD has a team of volunteers to help answer phones and tell kids where Santa is. Each person can take as many as 40 calls per hour and in 2014 the agency took 100,000 calls.
The NORAD santa team also handle 12,000 emails during Santa’s worldwide present-giving tour.
How does NORAD track Santa?
These days the system for tracking Santa’s journey is pretty high tech. To monitor his initial take off NORAD uses its 47 radar installations across the north of America.
Once in the air NORAD switches to its satellite network for accurate positioning of Santa, his sleigh and eight special reindeer.
NORAD’s satellite use infrared sensors to detect heat and according to the organisation Rudolph’s red nose gives off enough heat for them to accurately track Santa and his sleigh.
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