Santa tracker: Follow his sleigh on Christmas Eve

“Google s Santa Tracker launches today – And it s time to follow the jolly man s sleigh”, the California-based Internet firm said in a blog post playfully penned in rhyme.

The NORAD Santa Tracker and the Google Santa Tracker have been activated for Christmas 2015, with millions of children around the world looking to track exactly where Santa is on the way to delivering their presents.

But they all want to know where Santa is. After making his last deliveries, he will head home to the North Pole for some well-deserved rest – before starting preparations for next Christmas. You can blast a streaming Good King Wenceslas while exploring Santa’s village, which includes information about NORAD, Santa Claus, holiday traditions, related YouTube videos, holiday stories and coloring pages.

Volunteers staff telephones and computers to answer calls and emails from children from around the world. Google’s Santa Tracker is a more colorful cartoon representation while NORAD shows a more life-like avatar of Santa with his reindeer galloping in the sky.

NORAD, an organization charged with the air defense of the United States and Canada, got into the Santa-tracking business by accident.

The tradition started in 1955 when Colonel Harry Shoup, who was controlling the crisis phone at Air Operations Center at Continental Air Defense Command, received a phone call from a child expecting to reach Santa Claus. The misdirected call was the result of the child reversing two numbers of a Santa Line phone number printed in a Sears advertisement, according to the National Archives. NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will stream videos on the website as Santa makes his way over various locations.