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Each year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launches an interactive tool for kids to track Santa’s progress around the world on Christmas Eve.
This year is no different and the official NORAD Santa Tracker is now LIVE. Just hit play in the video above to see where Santa is right now.
You can follow jolly old St. Nick as he makes his journey around the world visiting each and every boy and girl.
At around 8pm, he was flying over Athens. Greece and Istanbul, Turkey, heading across Europe and is bang on time to arrive in the UK at midnight.
So please make sure all children are tucked up in bed and asleep by the time Santa comes shuffling down the chimney.
(Image: NORAD Tracks Santa)
Over the course of the evening, the bearded sky wizard travels an estimated 317,000,000 miles, moving at a speed of 1,800 miles per second and calling in on 390,000 homes every minute.
NORAD doesn't just track Father Christmas either, there US agency has plenty of interactive elements on its festive site.
There are games and facts all about Santa's sleigh, his route and the reindeer that will be helping him.
(Image: NORAD Tracks Santa)
Traditionally NORAD is responsible for defending airspace, but for the last sixty years has embraced a tradition of following the bearded sky wizard around the world.
Santa - or Father Christmas to us Brits - will travel an estimated 510,000,000 kilometers over the course of one night - moving at a speed of 10,703,437.5km/hr.
That works out at roughly 1,800 miles per second, and some very tired reindeer.
Volunteers are also on the phone lines at a call centre, taking around 70,000 phone from children in 200 countries asking where Santa is.
But sorry - the agency says it won't reveal how it manages to locate Santa Claus
You can also email or call the NORAD team too!
(Image: NORAD)
(Image: NORAD Tracks Santa)
The website lists the email address as: noradtrackssanta@outlook.com
It also says you can phone the call centre on 00-1-719-556-5211.
A staff member will reply and provide details of Santa's last known location - and also encourage your children to get to bed.
How many houses does Father Christmas visit?
According to the tracker, Santa will call in on 390,000 homes every minute during his Christmas Eve rush.
If he stops to scoff down a mince pie at each one, he will have consumed around 71,764,000,000 in the course of one night.
How did the tradition start?
(Image: Tom Gladstone)
NORAD began tracking Santa when a 1955 advert encouraged children to phone Santa - but gave the wrong number.
When he realised what had happened, Colonel Harry Shoup - who came to be known as the “Santa Colonel” - quickly told his staff to answer the calls with an update on Father Christmas's current position.
It developed into a tradition where volunteers staff call centres on Christmas Eve and take around 70,000 phone calls each year from 200 countries.
However the tracker has adapted with the times, becoming more advanced through the years.
And now it is available online in 3D each year alongside its own Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts. It's even got a free app.
Writing to fans on Facebook, NORAD said: "Thank you for letting us be part of the magic Santa.
"We can't wait to track you again this year and help the believers around the world follow your journey."
Over at CONAD, all was calm and well, when US Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, director of operations at the nuclear missile base, noticed the red phone on his desk ringing. Col. Shoup had two phones, and you can imagine what the red one was for. "Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number," recalled his daughter Pam.
Presumably fearing the worst, Col. Shoup picked up the receiver. Pam continues: "And then there was a small voice that just asked, 'Is this Santa Claus?'"
Shoup was a straight-laced and disciplined man – much as you would expect for the director of operations at the US's nuclear HQ – and he reacted with due annoyance, suspecting he was the victim of a practical joke. But then the little voice started crying.
"And Dad realised that it wasn't a joke," says Shoup's daughter. "So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho'd and asked if he had been a good boy and, 'May I talk to your mother?' And the mother got on and said, 'You haven't seen the paper yet?
"'There's a phone number to call Santa. It's in the Sears ad.'"
Shoup took the reins and ran with them. Soon, he was on local radio every hour, updating listeners on the whereabouts of an unidentified flying object that had the unmistakable look of a sleigh.
From one small mistake, a tradition was born. Every year hence, the nuclear has run a Christmas Eve hotline for children, updating them on the whereabouts of the Great Benefactor In The Sky.
Story highlights This is the 62nd year of the program's existence
It began because of a typo in a store ad
(CNN) The US military command that is charged with protecting the airspace for North America is on alert this Christmas weekend for a man with a white beard and a red suit.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is preparing to track a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer around the world as it heads for US airspace Sunday night.
NORAD said in a statement that starting at 2:01 a.m. ET on December 24, the public can access its official Santa Tracker to watch Santa Claus prepare for his voyage. Once Santa takes flight, the public can track his whereabouts and access NORAD's "Santa Cams" as he journeys around the world to bring joy to good boys and girls. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will participate in phone calls, the White House said.
Starting at 6 a.m. ET on Christmas Eve, the public can also call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) and speak live with NORAD trackers. People stuck in the car on the way to Grandmother's house, and with an OnStar subscription, can access the tracker by hitting their OnStar button.
Marine Col. Bob Brodie of the 601st Air Operations Center said fighter jets will "fly along (Santa's) wing" in a "close escort," and that the center will "monitor him with our satellites and even have infrared trackers to follow Rudolph."
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