Santa Tracker: How to follow Santa live around the world

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Wondering if Santa is near your house yet? The internet has the answer to your question.

Smartphone with Google's Santa Tracker webpage open being held in front of pine trees
(Image credit: Future)

Hopefully Santa Claus has gotten his Covid-19 booster shot, as he races around the globe tonight (Dec. 24) to deliver presents to all the good boys and girls. But where exactly is he? And when will he pay a visit to your home?

If your children are demanding to know the answer to these questions, technology can come to your rescue. A couple of different methods exist for figuring out where St. Nick is currently making his rounds this Christmas Eve, and all you need to track Santa is a web browser.

This modern method comes courtesy of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, otherwise known as NORAD. The North American air space monitoring agency added Santa-tracking to its list of duties in 1955, when a child reportedly placed a phone call to the agency demanding to know if Santa was over North American airspace.

Today, all you need to do to track Santa is head to the official NORAD Santa tracker, which offers a real-time graphical view of Santa's journey across the globe. There are also holiday-themed games and songs to enjoy, while you see what Santa is up to. 

Screenshot of NORAD Santa Tracker homepage

(Image credit: NORAD)

Meanwhile, Google's Santa Tracker can also let you know where St. Nicholas happens to be at the moment, and also contains some fun animations and games for kids — or festive adults.

As of 12:45 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve, both Google and NORAD have Santa somewhere over the Middle East, so you can chart his journey westward.

As for the Google site, you can take part in a mass snowball fight, guide an elf down a ski slope, or even give Santa a fabulous makeover for his very own selfie session.

(Image credit: Google)

Google's Santa Tracker is a nice way for the family to pass the time while you gather up Santa's milk and cookies ready for the big day. Or, if you still need to complete your holiday shopping, sit the kids down in front of Santa Tracker while you consult our last-minute gift guide.

Philip Michaels
Philip Michaels

Philip Michaels is a Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. He's been covering personal technology since 1999 and was in the building when Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone for the first time. He's been evaluating smartphones since that first iPhone debuted in 2007, and he's been following phone carriers and smartphone plans since 2015. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics, old movies and proper butchery techniques. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.