Santa and his reindeer have flown over Britain to deliver presents this Christmas - and you could have followed St Nick's progress right here.
Based at the North Pole with Mrs Claus and the elves, Santa has spent 12 long months creating the toys he is going to deliver on Christmas Day. Each year on December 24, Santa and his reindeer set off very early in the morning for their trip around the world.
And one of the most loved traditions is following Father Christmas on his mammoth journey. To help kids check where Santa is and how long it might take him to reach their homes, every year the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks him on a simulator.
The NORAD Santa tracker blog has now ended.
Santa is nearing the end of his epic journey as he flies over the Pacific Ocean en route to Hawaii having just left Kodiak in Alaska. It marks the end of an incredible journey across the world as Santa and his elite team of reindeer have so far delivered almost 7.5 BILLION presents!
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Santa is nearing the end of his epic journey as he flies over the Pacific Ocean en route to Hawaii having just left Kodiak in Alaska. It marks the end of an incredible journey across the world as Santa and his elite team of reindeer have so far delivered almost 7.5 BILLION presents!
NORAD has detected Santa as he makes his way over the West Coast. The jolly red man has been seen flying over San Francisco as he wraps up his 41 million-mile journey delivering to Washington State in the US and British Columbia in Canada. He's still got the territories of American Samoa, Baker Island and Howland Island to go.
As boys and girls across the UK wake up to see whether they made it onto the nice list this year, Santa is delivering the last of his billions of presents across the US.
The last places on Santa's journey this year will be the territories of American Samoa and the US outlying islands of Baker Island and Howland Island as he wraps up his 31 hour journey having covered 41 million miles to deliver gifts to 735 million children celebrating Christmas around the world.
He was last seen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the US as he makes his way toward Arizona. It's just the western coast of North and South America left to go along with territories in the Pacific Ocean and then Santa will be headed back to the North Pole to put his feet up and have a well earned rest.
A new map shows just how much of the globe Santa has now covered!
He's almost done for another year - with just the remainder of North and South America to go.
Santa and his reindeer have now handed out more than 6 billion of the 8 billion presents due to be delivered tonight.
The sleigh is currently flying over the mainland US after crossing the Atlantic and making stops down chimneys in the Caribbean.
After this they will make their way into South America.
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Father Christmas is now crossing the Atlantic, having completed his deliveries in Europe.
He is currently en route to the island of Bermuda before continuing around the Americas.
Father Christmas has entered UK airspace!
His reindeer and sleigh were seen on the NORAD tracker arriving over the UK's south coast, before he headed north to deliver presents.
He will deliver tens of millions of presents to UK children in a matter of minutes before heading over the Atlantic towards America.
Father Christmas has just been to Majorca, after riding over from the Spanish mainland - and is now en route to Tangier in Morocco.
According to NORAD, Santa will drop off presents in 390,000 homes every minute during his Christmas Eve rush.
If he stops to scoff down a mince pie at each one, he will have consumed around 71,764,000,000 in the course of one night.
Father Christmas has plenty of countries to get round in Europe this Christmas Eve - but he's making good time, and has just got to the Netherlands. Here's the latest photo we've got of him and his reindeer friends:
No budget flights for Father Christmas as he crosses Europe on his sleighIn another stop on his trip around Europe, the jolly festive figure and his sleigh are pulling into the town of Kaiserslautern, Germany, where a large Christmas Market is held for around a month every year.
Now it's time for Italy to welcome Father Christmas onto their shores, or 'Babbo Natale' as they call him. He's due in the town of Fidenza, Parma in just a matter of seconds.
Father Christmas and his team of reliable reindeer achieved an incredible feat this evening when they flew around the International Space Station (ISS), which is orbiting 250 miles above the surface of the Earth.
Santa is making a special stop for the astronauts at the International Space Station! Find out where he will go next at https://t.co/6qfPToRTlNhttps://t.co/pwuCxiDDyg
— NORAD Tracks Santa (@NoradSanta) December 24, 2023
He's made his list, he's checked it twice, and now Santa Claus is speeding through his work to deliver presents to boys and girls across the world. He's completed the continents of Asia and Australasia, and is currently on his way to Rwanda.
The second man on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin, has endorsed NORAD's mission to track Santa.
Gather the children and log onto NORAD to see where Santa is on his journey around the world! #MerryChristmas https://t.co/wPTXbWMtV7 pic.twitter.com/xseqBHRnmO
— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) December 24, 2023
He's about to arrive on the island of Santorini, Greece - where locals call him 'Agios Vasilis'.
The latest photo from NORAD's Santa tracker shows the white-bearded bringer of Christmas cheer flying across the Middle East as he continues his legendary journey around the world.
Father Christmas has travelled over the Middle East (Norad)Santa is now in Tanzania, a nation in East Africa.
Here, a traditional Swahili feast is cooked up for guests on Christmas Day, with a meat and rice dish named pilau being the usual highlight. Many people will leave their homes early tomorrow morning dressed in fine clothes to attend mass, which typically lasts up to two hours, before returning home in time for lunch.
It is estimated that Santa travels 510,000,000km - approximately 1,800 miles per second - on Christmas Eve.
According to NORAD, the "only logical conclusion" as to how Santa is able to traverse the globe in such a way is that he "somehow functions within his own time-space continuum". The agency said: "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."
Santa Claus has made a visit to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Though Christmas is not celebrated officially in the country, you can expect to find shopping malls, restaurants and coffeshops in the city decked out in luxury festive decorations.
The image of Christmas time is inevitably linked with lengths of colourful tinsel decorating trees and homes across the globe.
But all traditions start somewhere, and one legend has it that the use of tinsel during the festive season came from a very unexpected - and creepy - source.
Read more here.
Santa will shortly be landing in the Maldives, a small archipelago of islands in the Indian ocean famous for its miles of white sandy beaches.
The Muslim country does not officially celebrate Christmas - but guests at its many holiday resorts are treated to lots of festive food and entertainment.
Everyone knows that it's Rudolf's world-famous red nose that helps Santa to guide his sleigh at night.
But you might not be aware that reindeer have another trick that helps them get around in the dark.
Scientists from the University of St Andrews and Dartmouth College in the US found that the mammals have excellent night vision that allows them to locate dinner in harsh wintry conditions.
This is because their eyes transform in colour as the seasons change, from golden-orange in the summer to rich-blue in the winter.
Read more here.
Scientists found that reindeer's special night vision helps them track down one of their favourite foods (Getty Images)After stopping off in Mongolia, Santa's sleigh is now making its way to Burmistrovo in Russia, where's it's currently a chilly -6C!
He has landed in Thailand! Christmas has become an increasingly popular celebration in the country over recent decades, and the always-buzzing capital city of Bangkok is filled with impressive illuminations and displays at this time of year.
Every Christmas Eve, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) adjusts its satellites to track Father Christmas on his sleigh. But did you know that its mission to track Santa started completely by accident?
A post shared on the Airforce's official website reveals how the idea came about - and it's such a sweet story. It reads: "In 1955, a young child trying to reach Santa dialled the misprinted phone number from a department store ad in the local newspaper. Instead of calling Santa, the child called the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado."
Read more here.
Santa has now delivered more than 1.5 million presents on his trip around the globe this Christmas Eve! But there's plenty more to do...
(Getty Images)G'day Santa! He's arrived in the middle of the Australian summer, and is currently delivering presents to the city of Perth on the western coast.
Father Christmas will shortly be arriving in Indonesia, where he is traditionally known by his Dutch name 'Sinterklass'.
