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Home | Where's Santa Now? NORAD Tracks Santa 2023!

Where's Santa Now? NORAD Tracks Santa 2023!

NORAD Santa website screenshot

Every Christmas, the men and women of NORAD take a break from tracking the skies and waterways of North America and instead follow Santa Claus on his annual Christmas trek around the globe. You can check out Saint Nick's progress live online at NORAD's special Santa Tracking website, www.noradsanta.org.

NORAD's tradition of tracking Santa's route started in 1955, when a local Sears store in Colorado Springs printed the wrong phone number in a Christmastime advertisement for children to call Santa. The phone number was in fact that of the CONAD (the predececessor of NORAD, which took over the tradition in 1958) operations hotline, and the staff under Colonel Harry Shoup responded with good humor and gave the children who called in updates on Santa's position.

Now of course you can use NORAD's resources to follow Santa's path online. NORAD's website uses 3D mapping technology to show Santa's position in real time. Little Christmas present icons show where he's been, and you and your children can view fun video highlights of Santa and his sleigh, complete with Rudolph's glowing nose, passing by world monuments like the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids at Giza, and the Taj Mahal.

There are lot of other fun things on NORAD's Santa Site. Listen to holiday music performed by the US Air Force musical groups, play games, explore the North Pole, learn about Santa Claus and holiday traditions around the world, watch video clips in the theater, shop for NORAD Tracks Santa gear, and more! Our kids always love to visit the site to track Santa as he makes his way around the world on Christmas Eve.