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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Each year NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) launches its interactive tool to help kids and adults follow Father Christmas around the world on December 24th.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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."
Every Christmas Eve, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) deploys its cutting-edge technologies to track Santa Claus‘ movements as he scrambles to deliver presents to children around the world.
A joint Canadian-American venture, NORAD’s day job is to provide air security and aerospace warning services. But come the holiday season, the organization takes on the added responsibility of providing minute-by-minute updates on Santa’s whereabouts.
READ MORE: ‘I do not live in Canada,’ says Santa Claus, challenging government’s claim
This year, Canadians can keep tabs on Santa’s journey on the 2017 NORAD Santa Tracker website and via NORAD’s official Santa Tracker app, available for Apple, Android and Windows devices.
Google also offers its own Santa-tracking website, complete with a variety of games and an advent calendar.
But if you’d rather keep it old school, you can simply dial 1-877-HI-NORAD to speak to a volunteer.
But how exactly does NORAD keep track of Santa’s magical sleigh? Thanks to Rudolph, and a little technology, the process is quite simple.
WATCH: Keep track of Santa as he travels around the world
NORAD says its command centre’s Defense Support Program satellites use an infrared sensor to detect heat signatures from Rudolph’s nose to provide accurate tracking of the sleigh.
The NORAD Santa Tracker project began after an advertisement misprinted a telephone number for kids to reach Santa, causing kids to call the commander-in-chief of the now-defunct Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) back in 1955
It may have been an inconvenience at the time, but it sparked an annual tradition that was taken over by NORAD in 1958.
This year, NORAD’s Santa Tracker efforts will kick off at 2 a.m. ET on Dec. 24. Santa’s sleigh route will see him head south from the North Pole before travelling west through Asia, down through Africa and then north through Europe before making the trans-Atlantic journey to visit North and South America.
You can join the countdown by following the NORAD Santa Tracker Facebook and Twitter pages.
