Follow Father Christmas as he heads around the world: 5,000 presents delivered every second as Santa visits homes across the globe
- Norad (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is tracking Santa's course as he delivers presents to homes around the world this Christmas
- He will visit 822 homes every second at a speed of 650 miles a second
- Norad volunteers answered 114,000 phone calls around the world last year
- The Santa Tracker website had 22.3 million unique visitors
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It is a question that baffles most children - how on earth does Santa manage to deliver millions of presents to people all around the world in just one night?
But now quizzical children can find out the answer by watching his epic Christmas Eve journey themselves on Santa Tracker.
Norad (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is charting Santa's course as he delivers presents to homes around the world this Christmas.
The tracker shows Santa - aka 'The Big Red One' - delivering an estimated 1.6billion presents on Christmas Eve.
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Here comes Santa Claus! Father Christmas and his reindeer are currently flying over South East Asia as they visit every boy and girl ahead of Christmas Day
Santa Claus flies over Japan in a journey that takes him around the world in one day
Good day mate! Santa Claus heads over the vast plains of Australia close to Darwin
Santa and his reindeer en route to Davao City in the Philippines on Christmas Eve
Santa Tracker: Children who can't wait for Santa to arrive can now track his progress delivering presents around the world on Santa Tracker
This requires him to visit 822 homes every second at a speed of 650 miles a second - three times the speed of sound.
Norad's Santa Tracker first came about by accident on Christmas Eve in 1955 when a local media advertisement listed a direct phone number for Santa – only the number was misprinted.
Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the Crew Commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center.
Rather than disappoint the children, Commander Harry Shoup instructed his staff to give all the children who called a 'current location' for Santa.
This is how the tradition began and it continued when Norad replaced Conad in 1958.
It has become increasingly advanced over the years, developing from a call-centre manned by volunteers to a visual tracker that can be viewed online.
It is also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
In the Christmas spirit: Volunteers answer phone calls from children asking where Santa is and when he will deliver presents to their house
Busy: Volunteer Katherine Beaupre answers one of thousands of calls to the Santa Tracking Operation at the North American Aerospace Defense Command
Popular: Norad receives more than 70,000 phone calls every year while its website has more than 22million unique users
According to Norad, it handles 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than two hundred countries.
But last year, volunteers answered 114,000 phone calls from around the world. The website had 22.3 million unique visitors. Norad Tracks Santa had 1.2 million followers on Facebook and 129,000 on Twitter.
Then deputy commander of Norad, Lt. Gen. Marcel Duval, said in 2010: 'It's really ingrained in the NORAD psyche and culture.
'It's a goodwill gesture from all of us, on our time off, to all the kids on the planet.'
Norad has teamed up with Microsoft to redesign its Santa Track website for this year.
The high-tech website comes with all the latest bells and whistles, including a 3D globe, a holiday countdown and interactive games.
The redesign team has added a touch function to the site, allowing smartphone users to pinch and zoom in on Santa’s destinations, according to Microsoft.
Command center: Volunteers seen in this 2012 photo taking phone calls from children asking where Santa is and when he will deliver presents to their house
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