Tis the season: How to follow Santa Tracker as Father Christmas tours the globe

Children around the world are counting down to Santa's take-off on Christmas Eve

Katie Forster
Friday 23 December 2016 05:22 EST
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Santa Claus waves to the crowd during a parade in New York City
Santa Claus waves to the crowd during a parade in New York City (Getty Images)

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Traditionally, excited children and their parents leave out biscuits and milk for Father Christmas and a carrot for Rudolph before going to bed on Christmas Eve.

But now it’s possible to stay up and track his journey around the world in real time using a number of dedicated ‘Santa Tracker’ apps and websites.

Google’s Santa Tracker has animated videos, games and a world map with information on Christmas traditions in different countries.

The search engine is counting down to Santa and the reindeers’ take-off in less than a day’s time – when his progress will be charted live on Google Maps.

And the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) will update their site with the latest news on where Father Christmas stops off at when he begins his journey tomorrow.

Norad says it began tracking Santa in 1955 when a child called the Command’s headquarters in Colorado asking to speak to Santa Claus.

Now volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base answer an estimated 125,000 calls from children around the world to let them know where Santa is, and at what point he'll be arriving at their house.

Other ways to follow the world’s busiest present delivery round include downloading the free ‘Where is Santa?’ app made by Super Kiddo studio, or ‘Santa GPS’ made by Fission Media Group.

And technophiles with the latest voice-activated technology can ask new gadgets like Amazon’s Echo speaker where Father Christmas is at each moment, according to Cnet.

How Christmas is celebrated around the world

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