The nervous excitement on Christmas Eve isn’t complete without knowing exactly where Santa Claus is on his global journey! For decades, the tradition of tracking the sleigh was pioneered by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). This delightful annual custom began accidentally in 1955 when a typo in a Colorado Springs newspaper advertisement directed children to call a secret military defense line to ask where Santa was. Rather than hang up, Colonel Harry Shoup and his team started providing genuine updates. Today, the official NORAD Tracks Santa website and call center offer highly detailed, interactive, and festive tracking, complete with live radar views, games, and music, providing the most authoritative and longest-running method to follow his global route.
While NORAD remains the official favorite, a popular, family-friendly alternative is the Google Santa Tracker. This platform typically launches in early December and offers an entire digital Santa’s Village, featuring educational games, festive coding challenges, and charming animations in the lead-up to Christmas Eve. On the big night, the Google tracker uses a fun, stylized map to plot Santa’s real-time journey, showing when he’s expected to arrive at major cities worldwide. Both NORAD and Google provide robust, easy-to-use platforms accessible on desktop and mobile, ensuring that kids of all ages can watch his progress and know exactly when it’s time to dash off to bed before the sleigh bells start ringing overhead.


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