The NORAD Santa Tracker 2020 countdown started on December 1st which marks the 65th year NORAD has tracked Saint Nick and his flying reindeer with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer leading the way.

The NORAD Santa Tracker website also has a Santa Village with free games and activities for children to play online for free.

If you have an inquisitive child who might as “How do they track Santa? Do they have Santa on video? What time does Santa start? How does Santa get to everyone in the world?”

No worries, the NORAD Tracks Santa website has all the answers to those questions and more in their library link, including the technical data on Santa’s sleigh for all your future engineering children.

NORAD Santa Tracker Apps

You can also track the jolly old elf with the family from your mobile phone using the NORAD Santa Tracker App for Android or Apple iPhone.

How and Why Does NORAD Track Santa?

Basically, NORAD protects against air and missile attacks and tracks everything that moves through the air.

The tracking Santa tradition began in 1955 when Sears Roebuck & Co. accidentally misprinted Santa’s telephone number in their catalog.

Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the crew commander on duty, U.S. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, the predecessor to NORAD.

Col. Shoup was quick to realize a mistake had been made and assured the child he was Santa.

Shoup then assigned a duty officer to continue answering calls.

Now every year NORAD tracks Santa’s flight using satellite, radar, Santa cams, and fighter jets (yes fighter jets, F-15s, F-16s, and F-22s).

Santa begins in the South Pacific and travels West from there as he visits every child who believes in him.

Santa is able to personally stop at each child on the good list’s house because he experiences time differently than we do.

As long as it takes him to visit each and every child only feels like 24 hours to us.