It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa Claus is suited up for his annual voyage from the North Pole to households around the world. In keeping with decades of tradition, the North American Aerospace Command, or NORAD, will once again track Santa’s journey to deliver gifts to children before Christmas 2024, using an official map that’s updated consistently to show where he is right now.
NORAD, the agency responsible for monitoring and defending airspaces over the United States and Canada, has tracked Santa’s whereabouts every year since 1958. Its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, handled the project for three years before NORAD took over.
Here’s what to know as the tracker maps out Santa’s journey this Christmas.
NORAD updates its map in real time to show Santa’s current location on his flight around the world.
So far, he appears to have covered about half the globe, heading westward from the Pacific across Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe, delivering more than 3 billion gifts and counting.
Monitor Santa’s progress on the live map on NORAD’s website, or follow occasional updates throughout the day on the agency’s Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube pages.