Google later developed the Santa Tracker website as well as Santa's Village, which boasts an array of fun games and educational resources for children and families.
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How to track Santa's journey with Googleįollowing the success of NORAD's Christmas role, Google launched Keyhole Santa Radar in 2004 as part of Keyhole Earth Viewer, now known as Google Earth.
More than 50 years after the night of calls from children, Colonel Shoup's granddaughter Carrie Farrell, who worked for Google, announced their partnership with NORAD to track Santa in 2007 - although the companies have since parted ways, carrying out their holiday roles separately. NORAD has carried out its Christmas role for over 60 years and since 1997, children across the globe have been able to monitor Santa's journey online. The Santa tracking tradition, later continued by NORAD, was born. He and his fellow call operators together informed the children calling throughout the night of Santa's exact location. To his surprise, a young child had phoned the top secret line after finding a newspaper advert about 'Santa's Toyland' from department store Sears, with the number of CONAD, NORAD's predecessor, printed by mistake.Ĭolonel Shoup, dubbed "Santa Colonel", later received multiple calls that night from other children, all looking for the whereabouts of Father Christmas. On a Christmas Eve shift back in 1955, Colonel Harry Shoup answered a call made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) in Colorado Springs, USA. The history behind NORAD's role at Christmas There will be 1,500 volunteers responding to emails and answering more than 140,000 calls regarding Santa's exact whereabouts. On December 1, NORAD will open up their festive website once again, with games, videos, music and stories, all available in a range of languages.Īnd, on Christmas Eve, the official Santa tracker will launch, enabling keen followers of Father Christmas to monitor his journey of delivering presents. Throughout the year, the US and Canadian organisation NORAD, monitors aerospace in event of nuclear attack, but when Christmas comes around, they monitor the skies for Santa's sleigh.Įvery year, the NORAD Tracks Santa website receives nearly nine million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories across the globe who are keen to follow Santa on his journey.
Santa then carries on his journey to Asia, Africa and Western Europe, concluding with Canada, the US, Mexico and South America. He then travels west, delivering presents to those in New Zealand and Australia, followed by Japan.
Santa's journey across the globeĮvery year on Christmas Eve, Santa sets off on his sleigh from Lapland with his trusty reindeer, travelling an estimated 510,000,000 km - approximately 1,800 miles per second.Ĭhristmas Eve is a busy time for Father Christmas as he needs to visit 390,000 homes per minute, which equates to around 6,424 per second.įrom sherry, mulled wine and beer, to mince pies, gingerbread men and fruit cake, Santa won't be short of energy during his journey, consuming a total of 71,764,000,000 calories.īut, with plenty of driving involved throughout the night, let's hope children opt to leave him non-alcoholic beverages.įather Christmas' journey always begins in the South Pacific, with his first stop to the Republic of Kiribati, a collection of 32 atolls in the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to modern technology, children (and adults) can follow Father Christmas' journey across the globe on December 24, using the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google's Santa trackers.įrom the history behind NORAD's holiday role to finding out what time you can expect an appearance down your chimney, here is everything you need to know about Santa's busiest night of the year. During the festive season, millions of children count down the days of December and go to sleep on Christmas Eve, excitedly awaiting the delivery of their Christmas gifts from the beloved Santa Claus. The most wonderful time of year is fast approaching.
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