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Every Christmas Eve on December 24, 2024, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) exchanges its usual airspace monitoring duties for tracking Santa Claus and his sleigh in real time. According to a report by The Independent, every year at least 100,000 kids call NORAD to ask about Santa's location.
Google offers a similar feature of Santa tracking since 2004 by combining the feature of Google Maps and the knowledge of where Santa Claus is. However, Google's Santa tracker doesn't possess the same satellite tracker as NORAD does.
NORAD's Santa tracker will show the real-time location of Father Christmas starting 4 am MST (Mountain Standard Time) on December 24, 2024, on the NORAD website. Additionally, people can call the command center at 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) from 6 am to midnight MST on December 24, 2024, for updates on Santa Claus and his reindeer's location.
Apart from the website and call center, NORAD's Santa tracker can be accessed through Amazon Alexa, the NORAD Tracks Santa app, OnStar, SiriusXM, and social media platforms.
The tracker went live on December 24, 2024. People can access Google's Santa tracking website through the web browser and watch a live map of Father Christmas' current location, next stop, and a live video feed of his travels along with the estimated time of arrival at certain locations.
Google and NORAD: Details of the Santa Claus trackers explored
According to NORAD's website, their Santa Claus tracker came into existence with an accident in 1955 when a young child dialled a misprinted phone number from a department store ad in the local newspaper, trying to reach Santa. The number got connected to CONAD (Continental Air Defense Command) in Colorado Springs.
The commander on duty at the time, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, answered the call and assured the child that he was Santa. This incident led to more calls after which Col. Shoup designated a duty office to answer the phone calls, leading to a custom that continued when NORAD was formed in 1958. For more than 65 years, NORAD has reported Santa Claus' location to children and their families.
NORAD's website, run by the US military, combines hoarse colonels presenting a video about Santa Claus with live information concerning the location of Father Christmas and his sleigh. According to a report by TechRadar dated December 25, 2024, NORAD is basic as compared to other trackers and doesn't feature a lot of polish or website design.
However, it is the most popular Santa tracker owing to its history, its 22-year partnership with telecommunications company Verizon, its team of volunteers answering calls about Santa's location, and a new AI chatbot called Radar.
As per Google's official blog, its Santa tracker was introduced in 2004 and was built on NORAD's tradition of giving people Santa's exact location. TechRadar's report mentions that Google's Santa tracker allows users to play minigames and offers a month-long website enabling children to learn coding as they navigate a winter wonderland.
Unique features of Google's Santa tracker comprise the Quick Draw game that teaches the image-recognition software on the search engine platform to improve. Moreover, the Santa tracking website is the most "visually accessible" and beautifully designed.
Both Google and NORAD Santa trackers offer the joy of witnessing Santa Claus' real-time journey from the North Pole to rest of the world, thus becoming the most popular tools for tracking Father Christmas.
