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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Nisha Mal

NORAD Santa Tracker 2019: How to follow Santa Claus on his journey this Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the busiest day of the year for Father Christmas.

Today the man in red will be whizzing around the globe on his magical sleigh delivering presents to children.

Little boys and girls can follow his journey throughout the day, thanks to the NORAD tracker, which will show them exactly where he is.

The Santa tracker will go live at around 8am GMT. It will give you live details on where he was last seen, where he's heading and how many gifts he's delivered so far.

The man in red travels an estimated 510,000,000 km - approximately 1,800 miles per second - on Christmas Eve.

How to track Santa

Families will leave out mince pies and glasses of sherry for him to enjoy as he visits all of houses, while carrot sticks will be left out for his reindeer Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

Millions of people are expected to access the age today.

The official countdown to the start of the tracker began earlier on in the month. Along with a countdown timer, there were games and activities for kids to play.

The NORAD Santa tracker began in 1955 in America, after an advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa.

Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to NORAD. The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

Children who called were given updates on his location, and the tracker was born. Before it became an interactive tool, children could find out where Santa was by calling the NORAD hot line in December.

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