Santa tracker 2023: Watch Father Christmas deliver presents across the globe live

Santa is now on his way to Greenland having left Sint Marteen. It is thought he will arive in around eight minutes time.

Once he arrives at the Danish territory, he should have given out around 5billion presents this Christmas.

The NORAD Santa tracker says Father Christmas has just left Palmer Station in the South Pole. It means he has now travelled between the two poles, delivering over 4.6 billion presents in the process.

His next stop is set to be the Falkland Islands in around three minutes time.

Having delivered over 4.4 billion gifts to children around the world, Santa is now heading over Cape Verde.

Afterwards he will jet off to Natal in Brazil, a journey that will take his super speedy sleigh just six minutes.

Merry Christmas! With the clock having turned midnight Santa is now on his way to Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, The Azores.

He has now delivered over 4billion gifts. He was last seen touching down in Iceland.

Santa Claus has just passed over Spain and is headed for Morocco.

Historically, Santa will finish delivering presents in Western Europe, then move over to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Santa has delivered almost 4 billion presents so far!

Follow along with Santa’s progress at NORAD’s Santa tracker.

While everyone knows Rudolph’s red nose guides Santa’s sleigh at night, you might not know that reindeer can actually see in the dark.

Scientists from the University of St. Andrews and Dartmouth College found that reindeer have excellent vision at night that allows them to navigate harsh wintry conditions.

According to their research, the animals’ eyes transform color as the seasons change, from gold in the summer to blue in the winter.

According to NORAD, it is estimated that Santa travels at 510,000,000 km, approximately 1,800 miles per second.

NORAD said the “only logical conclusion” as to how Santa can travel the world so fast is that he “somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.”

They wrote: “NORAD intelligence reports indicate that Santa does not experience time the way we do.

“His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa, it might last days, weeks or even months.”

Kris Kringle is currently flying over Vienna, Austria, with his nine reindeer leading his sleigh.

He will head to Freising, Germany very shortly.

Santa Claus is headed to sunny Greece, where he just left Athens.

He was last seen in Antalya, Turkey.

He’s almost at 3 billion gifts!

NORAD says it’s impossible to know what time Santa will arrive at each house, as he’s the only one who knows his route.

But history suggests that Santa will only come when children are asleep – so between 9pm and midnight on December 24 is probably when he’ll arrive.

NORAD said: “If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses. He returns later, but only when the children are asleep!”

This year marks NORAD’s 68th year of tracking Santa as he delivers presents around the world.

Santa Claus was last seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, and he’s now currently headed to Moscow, Russia.

Almost 3 billion gifts have been delivered!

Santa Claus was last seen in Volgograd.

Before that he did a whistlestop tour of Kazakhstan and touched down in Chelyabinsk.

Santa’s sleigh is currently soaring through the sky en route to Bangalore, India.

He was last seen in the Maldives.

As he crosses over Bangalore, he will look down at its vibrant music and dance scene, and perhaps catch a glimpse of the city’s vivid, cutting-edge nightlife.

While NORAD has a good intelligence assessment of his sleigh’s capabilities, Santa does not file a flight plan and may have some high-tech secrets up his red sleeve this year to help guide his travels — maybe even artificial intelligence.

“I don’t know yet if he’s using AI,” said US Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, NORAD’s chief spokesperson.

“I’ll be curious to see if our assessment of his flight this year shows us some advanced capabilities.”

Father Christmas is currently flying across Australia. His next step is Geraldton on the West Coast, having just left Perth.

Local time is 23:26.

The tracking Santa tradition began in 1955, when Air Force Col. Harry Shoup — the commander on duty at the NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command — fielded a call from a child who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a newspaper department store ad, thinking she was calling Santa.

A fast-thinking Shoup quickly assured his caller he was Santa, and as more calls came in, he assigned a duty officer to keep answering. And the tradition began.

NORAD expects some 1,100 volunteers to help answer calls this year in a dedicated operations center at Peterson Space Force Base, in Colorado Springs, ranging from command staff to people from around the world.

The operations center started up at 4 am on Christmas Eve and is open until midnight . Anyone can call 1-877 HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to talk directly to NORAD staff members who will provide updates on Santa’s exact location.

Santa’s sleigh is currently hurtling towards Indonesia.

At the time of writing, he has dropped off 1,438,456,363 presents to virtuous children around the globe.

The local time is 22:15.

Armed with radars, sensors and aircraft, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado keeps a close watch on Santa and his sleigh from the moment he leaves the North Pole. And it once again will share all those details so everyone can follow along as Santa travels the globe beginning Christmas Eve.

NORAD, the military command that is responsible for protecting North American airspace, has launched its noradsanta.org website, social media sites and mobile app, loaded with games, movies, books and music.

The military will track Santa with, “the same technology we use every single day to keep North America safe”, said U.S. Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, NORAD’s chief spokesperson. “We’re able to follow the light from Rudolph’s red nose.”

Santa has dropped off presents in Guangzhou, a sprawling port city northwest of Hong Kong on the Pearl River in southern China.

The local time is 22:52 so a little over an hour until Christmas day.

Santa is now headng towards Chongqing in southwestern China.

Here is a live stream of Santa’s journey.

Santa is now flying over Papua New Guinea, as seen on the NORAD tracker.

Not all parts of the country celebrate Christmas, but there is a public holiday on the island to mark the occasion.

British English – Santa Claus/Father Christmas

American English – Kris Kringle

French – Père Noël / Papa Noël

Spanish – Papa Noel

Dutch – Sinterklaas

German – Weihnachtsmann

Italian – Babbo Natale

Portuguese – Papai Noel

Russian – Дед Мороз – Ded Moroz

Turkish – Noel Baba

Polish – Święty Mikołaj

Google tracker is showing Santa flying over Japan having also flown near the Philippines.

NORAD Tracker has followed Father Christmas flying over Russia as he delivers presents to the country.

He has already delivered more than 86 million gifts to children today.

Flightradar24 reports that Santa has been sighted in air space between Australia and New Zealand.

Google’s tracker says he is in Wellington, New Zealand.

It is believed that Santa will have delivered 30 million presents already.

Despite the cost of living crisis, the average UK household will spend £1,811.70 on Christmas festivities this year, according to reports.

The average Brit spent just £229 on Christmas 30 years ago.

Santa and his elves are putting all of the presents on his sleigh as he prepares to deliver them to children around the world.

NORAD officials in the North Pole have said that conditions today “indicate good weather for flying.”