MerryHoHo

Trackers

They track one Santa,
on one night.

NORAD has been doing this since 1955 and Google since 2004, and both are good at it. But both follow a red-suited Santa on 24 December — which is the wrong figure, the wrong night, or both, in 33 of the 55 countries here.

The two that matter

Since 1955

NORAD Tracks Santa

The original, run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Goes live on 24 December and follows one route. There is a phone line staffed by volunteers, which is the part children remember.

Follows
Santa Claus
On
24 December

Since 2004

Google Santa Tracker

A countdown village of games through December, then a live map on the 24th. Heavily localised in language, but not in tradition: the figure and the date are the same everywhere.

Follows
Santa Claus
On
24 December

The gap

A map of the wrong night is worse than no map

Both trackers translate their interface into dozens of languages, and neither translates the tradition. A Dutch child watching a live map on 24 December is watching something that has nothing to do with them: Sinterklaas came on the 5th, by steamboat, and left again. A Spanish child on the 24th is nineteen days early.

What a child actually wants from a tracker is the waiting made visible. That works on any date — and it works better on the right one.

Count down to your own date

Questions people actually ask

Is the Santa tracker real?
It is a production, and a very old one — NORAD has run theirs since 1955, when a newspaper misprinted a phone number and children reached an air defense operations center instead of a department store. Nothing is being detected. The route is written in advance and animated on the night.
Why isn't my country's gift-bringer in it?
Because both major trackers follow a single figure on a single night — Santa Claus on 24 December — and much of Europe does not. In Czechia the presents come from Ježíšek on the same evening but from a different figure entirely; in the Netherlands Sinterklaas has already been and gone on 5 December; in Spain and Mexico the Three Kings do not arrive until 6 January.
What can I show a child instead?
A countdown to the right date works better than a map of the wrong one, because the waiting is the part children actually feel. If the figure in your house arrives on 5 December or 6 January, a tracker running on the 24th is not early or late — it is about somebody else.
When do the trackers go live?
Google's village opens through December and the map runs on the 24th; NORAD's goes live on the 24th. Both are gone by the 25th, which is another reason they are no use at all to a family whose night is in January.