How to follow Santa Claus around the world

Santa Claus has begun his journey and is distributing presents around the world.

Anyone who wants to follow his journey can do so via the Norad Santa Tracker.

The famous Santa Tracker, operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has been in service for more than 60 years.

He began his journey shortly after 9am UK time and has since delivered over 1.7 billion gifts.

How to follow Santa Claus on NORAD

The NORAD tracker can be accessed here.

NORAD claims to be able to track Santa using a professional radar system called the North Warning System, which can detect when he leaves the North Pole. Satellites and fighter jets also help determine his whereabouts.

However, there is also a separate Google Santa Tracker with children's games.

Which route does Santa Claus take?

According to NORAD, Santa began his mission at the International Date Line and is currently en route to Zhangye, China.

He then travels further to the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.

After a brief stop for milk and mince pies, it glides on to Japan and the rest of East Asia before heading on to Africa.

From here he travels on to Western Europe and later to the USA, Mexico and Central and South America.

He is accompanied by his loyal reindeer team: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.

NORAD says: “Remember that Santa's route can be affected by weather and is therefore truly unpredictable. NORAD coordinates with Santa's elf launch team to confirm his launch time, but from that point on, Santa is in charge. We're just tracking him!”

How long does Santa Claus’ journey take?

NORAD says Santa Claus “doesn’t experience time the way we do.”

“To us, his journey appears to take 24 hours, but to Santa, it could take days, weeks, or even months. Santa would not want to rush the important task of bringing presents to children and bringing joy to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions in his own space-time continuum,” they claim on their website.