For families worldwide, the question "Where's Santa now?" is a Christmas Eve staple. Thanks to advanced tracking tools from NORAD and Google, following Father Christmas's global journey is easier and more magical than ever. This year, artificial intelligence adds a new dimension to the holiday fun, offering interactive ways to experience Santa's epic delivery run. Here's how to track Santa Claus this Christmas Eve, leveraging the latest in AI and digital technology.
Track Santa Claus with NORAD
NORAD's Santa Tracker, a beloved holiday tradition since 1955, has come a long way from its early days of simple sleigh animations. What began as a unique response to a misprinted phone number now offers a rich, interactive experience.
Recently, the NORAD Santa Tracker team collaborated with OpenAI to integrate exciting AI-powered features. Families can now transform selfies into animated elf characters using an image generator, create unique toy ideas that convert into printable coloring book pages, and craft personalized holiday stories with a fill-in-the-blank tool, adding their own names and details for read-aloud fun.
Beyond AI, the tracker boasts a stunning 3D visual depiction of Santa's journey, built on Cesium's open-source 3D mapping library and enhanced by Bing Maps satellite imagery for a realistic global view.
Additional features include a "Santa Cam" showing videos of Santa delivering presents worldwide, and NORAD's North Pole Village, which offers a holiday countdown, arcade games, kid-friendly music, an online library, and various videos accessible on their official YouTube channel.
Access NORAD's Santa Tracker via noradsanta.org, or download the official app on Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store. The website supports multiple languages, including English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, and Portuguese. You can also follow updates on their social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For a personal touch, call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6732) to speak with a volunteer for Santa's latest location.
Track Santa Claus with Google
Google's Santa Tracker, launched in 2004, offers another comprehensive way to follow Santa's global journey. Its website features a dynamic live map displaying Santa's current location, his next destination, a live video feed of his route, and estimated arrival times for various locations. It also keeps a running tally of the total distance Santa has traveled and the number of presents he has delivered so far.
Throughout December, the platform transforms into Santa's Village, a hub of festive activities. Users can enjoy a variety of mini-games, quizzes, and animated videos. Popular activities include "Elf Maker" for designing your own elf, "Elf Jamband" for hosting a concert, and "Code Boogie" for fun, kid-friendly coding tutorials.
For an even more interactive experience, Google Assistant can provide real-time updates. Simply ask, "Hey Google, where's Santa?" or "What's new at the North Pole?" to tune into Google's North Pole Newscast and hear about Santa and his elves' daily activities. Google Assistant even allows you to "call" Santa himself for a special holiday message.
