Norad to track Santa's journey as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve this year

Santa Claus is coming to town — and this year, as always, his journey will be tracked live as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve.

This image provided by Norad shows Norad's Santa Tracker on Dec. 24, 2024. [NORAD]

Santa Claus is coming to town — and this year, as always, his journey will be tracked live as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) will once again monitor and share Santa’s route in real time as he flies through the night sky, according to the New York Post and other outlets Thursday.

Norad said it is fully prepared to track Santa’s journey this year, with its official “Santa Tracker” website and mobile app launched on Dec. 1. Residents in Korea can access the site at 6 p.m. on Dec. 24, when it will begin broadcasting his flight live.

As in previous years, Santa is expected to depart from the North Pole in a sleigh pulled by a team of reindeer — including Rudolph — and head south over the Pacific Ocean along the International Date Line before continuing westward.

Last Christmas Eve, Santa visited the Korean skies for about 3 minutes and 45 seconds, reportedly delivering more than 20 million presents to well-behaved children across the country.

Norad, which defends North American airspace, is known to use radar and satellite technology to track infrared signals emitted from Rudolph’s glowing red nose to determine Santa’s exact location.

Volunteers answer phone calls from around the world on Dec. 24, 2024, at the Norad Tracks Santa center at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. [AP/YONHAP]

According to Norad, Santa’s sleigh has a takeoff weight equivalent to 75,000 jelly beans. Santa himself is estimated to weigh about 260 pounds (118 kilograms), and his sleigh can travel faster than starlight, powered by hay, oats and carrots, while carrying up to 60,000 tons of gifts.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Norad’s Santa tracking tradition, which began with a happy accident in 1955. That year, a Colorado Springs local newspaper ran an ad encouraging children to “call Santa,” but it mistakenly listed the number for the Continental Air Defense Command (Conad), Norad’s predecessor.

One child called the emergency “red phone,” prompting then-Col. Harry Shoup to answer. When the child asked, “Are you really Santa?” Shoup reportedly played along and then asked to speak with their mother.

From the following year onward, Conad — and later Norad — began tracking Santa’s route each Christmas Eve as a holiday tradition.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY JANG GU-SEUL [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]