Father Christmas Live: How to track Santa delivering presents on Christmas Eve

Children and adults alike can follow Santa’s 510,000,000km journey across the globe this Christmas

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Santa will soon be getting ready to mount his sleigh and deliver presents to millions of children – and now you can watch his journey.

Thanks to the NORAD Santa Tracker website, children (and adults) can follow Father Christmas’ epic 510,000,000km route on Christmas Eve.

For the rest of the year NORAD – the North American Aerospace Defence Command – monitors aerospace in the event of a nuclear attack, but during the holiday season their tracker can be accessed by anyone wishing to keep an eye on their presents.

On Christmas Eve click here to watch as Santa begins his journey at the North Pole just before 11am GMT, before heading to his first stop at the Republic of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean.

After dropping off his first batch of presents he will fly his sleigh to New Zealand, followed by Australia, Asia and Africa, before arriving in the UK at midnight.  

After scooting down the chimneys of 29 million British homes, he will set his reindeers across the Atlantic to Canada, then USA and Mexico, before finishing his impressive trip in South America.

And no wonder we leave a mince pie and a glass of brandy out for jolly old Saint Nick, as he will be visiting 390,000 homes per minute - that’s 6.424 per second.

But just how does NORAD keep such a close eye on Santa?  

According to their website, "NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole every holiday season.

“The moment our radar tells us that Santa has lifted off, we begin to use the same satellites that we use in providing air warning of possible missile launches aimed at North America.

“Even though Santa flies faster than any jet fighter (Santa actually slows down for us to escort him), all of these systems together provide NORAD with a very good continuous picture of his whereabouts.”

The NORAD Santa tracker has been running for 65 years and supposedly came about on Christmas Eve in 1955 when Colonel Harry Shoup answered a call made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) in Colorado Springs, USA.

Much to his surprise, a young child had phoned the top secret line after reading a newspaper advert for 'Santa's Toyland' from department store Sears, with the number of CONAD - NORAD's predecessor - printed by mistake.

Colonel Shoup continued to receive multiple calls throughout night from other children, all asking to know Santa’s whereabouts, and so he and his fellow call operators decided to tell the children exactly where Santa would be.

And so, the Santa tracking tradition - later continued by NORAD -was born.

Now it is the most popular way to watch Santa’s journey - with more than nine million online visitors every year - and the organisation relies on a small army of volunteers to run the tracker each Christmas Eve.

The website also features festive games, Christmas music and information on Santa’s story to help keep excited children entertained.

Alternatively, Google launched their own Santa Tracker in 2004 which also allows users to keep an eye on Father Christmas. The site has fun information about the number of presents Santa has delivered so far, as well as the weather in his current location and how far he is from your own home.