Follow Santa Claus live in 2024 with Google or Norad!

Santa Claus has just arrived in the Marshall Islands after his visit to Eastern Russia. Number of gifts delivered so far: 2,716,121! He will spend some time in the Pacific countries before heading to New Zealand and Australia.

If you are in the United States, you can call NORAD today until midnight to find out where Santa is: the number to call is 1 877 HI-NORAD (1 877 446-6723).

NORAD says more than 1,250 uniformed members and civilian volunteers dedicate their time to answering calls and making sure you always know where Santa is. The AI-generated image above gives you an idea of ​​what this might look like.

However, they will also give you an important warning: Santa will only deliver his presents when you are asleep!

Santa Claus is about to reach Anadyr, Russia. According to Wikipedia (and no, I didn't know that myself before), Anadyr is the easternmost city in Russia. And she looks very pretty.

NORAD hasn't updated yet, but Google now says Santa is off the sea east of Russia and says he's already delivered more than 45,000 presents in 10 minutes. That's probably more than Amazon can handle!

While Santa is already at work, we are still waiting for an update from NORAD's tracker on his location. We think the big man has his most excited elf currently working on the matter, and for now, you can continue to use Google's Santa tracker.

Managing these trackers isn't easy, especially considering how quickly Santa flies around the world to deliver every present on time. We hope the reindeer will have a day off at Christmas.

The number of gifts delivered: 11,000 and growing quickly.

Santa's next stop, according to Google, will be Provideniya in Russia. Photos of the area show a very pretty, but slightly isolated town.

NORAD still says Santa is getting ready, but has a new message that says “NORAD radars and satellites are ready to track Santa!”

Here we go ! We can confirm that Santa is now crossing the Arctic Ocean and has already delivered almost 900 presents. Saint Nicholas is pretty good at this, right?

It's now Christmas somewhere in the world… did you know that the earliest time zone on the planet is UTC+14:00? And he didn't even officially exist until 1994. The Kiribati Islands have now moved on to Christmas Day, however, with a population of less than 120,000, Santa doesn't have too many presents to deliver.

As of yet, NORAD has not updated its 2D or 3D maps – but we are keeping a close eye on this for a future update.

We were at least 5 minutes from the big takeoff – on Google's Santa tracker, the map view shows the Christmas man preparing to leave the North Pole.

Meanwhile, NORAD's Santa tracker still displays an image of Santa wrapping presents. He's definitely out of his depth here, but after all these years we assume he knows what he's doing.

We just got off the phone with Santa, and he's surprisingly calm for someone about to embark on the greatest gift-delivery mission known to man, unless you count that moment when Apple offered to everyone Songs of Innocence by U2. What a strange day it was.

Anyway, Santa mentioned something pretty interesting if you like Christmas stories. Nearly 100 years ago, in 1927, Santa received his official pilot's license from the United States government. He and Mrs. Clauses even received Canadian passports in 2013, thanks to Canada's Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander.

There are about 20 minutes until Santa leaves, according to Google. NORAD's countdown has already reached zero, but it still says it's getting ready, so I think both sites agree that it will leave around 10am GMT / 5am ET / 2am PT / 9pm AEDT.

Let's hope he doesn't have a last minute problem with his sled…

My favorite game of the NORAD ones is the cheerfully named Santa Games (which is confusing, because they're pretty much all Santa-themed games, not just this one).

Anyway, Santa Games is a Mario-style platformer where you control the bearded man dodging goblin-like creatures (I didn't know goblins were an occupational hazard for Santa), collecting presents (good), the letters of the word Santa (good), and diamonds (confused – why would Santa want diamonds?)

This game is actually quite fun.

NORAD also offers games in its Arcade section. They're…how can I put this nicely…not quite as impressive as Google's.

I just tried the 3D game Santa Run, and it's pretty terrifying – but why not try it yourself and see if you can beat my score of 600, which is mediocre to say the least.

While waiting for Santa to leave, I like to entertain myself with some of Google's great games. My favorite is Quick Draw – even though I’m not very good at it.

How does it work? Well, the robot asks you to draw something and then tries to guess what it is. It's a bit like Pictionary, but with a robot rather than your family yelling at you. The effect is essentially the same, since he gets angry and tells me “I don’t know what it is!” repeatedly.

Want to chat with Santa easily?

Who needs to dial a number when you can use Google Assistant to call the man in red himself? Simply grab your Android phone, Google-enabled smart speaker, or the Google app on iPhone and ask “What's New at the North Pole” to hear the latest from the world of Santa.

I just tried this on my Nest smart display and can confirm that it's a lot of fun.

Here we go ! The Google tracker indicates that Santa is now on his way over the Arctic Ocean and has already delivered nearly 900 presents. Santa is really on his own business, right?

It's already Christmas somewhere in the world… did you know that the earliest time zone on the planet is UTC+14:00?

For the moment, we are still waiting for feedback from NORAD regarding its position, but we are certain that the weather will be nice on a clear day at the North Pole.

SO ! NORAD is coming back – sort of. It shows an image of Santa Claus still getting ready. Maybe it will take a little longer to take off?

The NORAD site seems to be having some difficulties at the moment, which is exactly the same problem as last year, and the year before that. Maybe Santa should buy them some new computers for Christmas?

And we have good news! The NORAD tracking site confirmed: “Current conditions at the North Pole indicate good conditions for flying.”

That's what we like to hear.

5…4…3…2…1… Santa Claus takes off!

Saint Nicholas left the building, pulling a sled that probably weighs as much as the Empire State Building…twice! And no, dear friend – that’s not all for you.

It will first head to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia. So if you're below the equator line, it's time to go to bed!

There are still 7 minutes until Santa takes off, according to NORAD. It's exciting!

In the meantime, Santa Claus is preparing for takeoff! Before he begins his epic gift-delivering journey around the world, he needs to make his final checks. Rennes? Checked. Reins? Verified. Gifts ?

…

He forgot the gifts. That's why we do these last minute checks!

So here we have a little glimpse of Santa's preparations before flying off on his mission to distribute gifts around the world. Indeed, he must ensure that everything is in place and that nothing is missing for his imminently awaited departure.

Traditions vary around the globe. In Australia, Santa is offered a cold beer to help him cope with the heat, while Danish families leave a bowl of rice pudding with cinnamon for the elves. In the United States, he is entitled to milk and cookies, and in Argentina, the reindeer recharge their batteries with hay and water.

There's still a little time left before Santa leaves, so if you haven't yet prepared a special little gift as a thank you for him, now is the perfect time. Here in the UK we leave carrots for the reindeer, and the man himself gets a meat pie and sometimes even a small glass of alcohol like sherry or beer (or Guinness in some families Irish!).

And look, we have a photo of him enjoying this kind of feast. Of course, it's not really a photo, obviously – this is an image generated with Adobe Firefly. Seems pretty accurate, right?

I really should introduce myself at this point – it’s very rude not to have done so. I'm Marc, and I'll be your guide for the next hour or so. Good morning ! ????

Yes, it's the highlight of our year again – TechRadar's Christmas Tracker is back!

The guy is ready to leave on his annual world tour, but there's still plenty of time to prepare for his arrival. After all, it's not even Christmas Eve yet in many parts of the world.

We'll be following Santa's journey live over the next 24 hours, bringing you the latest news on his whereabouts and sharing lots of information about Christmas traditions along the way. Trust us, it's the best way to prepare for the big day.

Come on, forward…