Santa Tracker NORAD Map 2013: How To Follow Santa’s Route Around The Globe This Christmas!

For kids anxious for Santa's arrival, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has a Christmas treat just for you! In 1955, a local newspaper advertisement invited children to call Santa but mistakenly listed the hotline or NORAD's predecessor. Rather than disappoint the kids, commanders told them they indeed knew where Santa was. NORAD, a U.S.-Canadian operation based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., continues the tradition til this day every Christmas Eve.

There are multiple ways for families, kids and parents to follow NORAD Santa Tracker. NORAD provides updates by phone, Facebook, Twitter and email. You can call 877-HI-NORAD to speak with a live person who will give you an update. You can also find them online at their site, http://www.noradsanta.org. Also social networking sites like Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/noradsanta or shoot them a tweet via Twitter @NoradSanta. NORAD also has an email address which is: noradtrackssanta@outlook.com

Smartphone apps from both iTunes and the Google Play Store are also available for free! NORAD's Santa operations center opens at 6 a.m. ET on Dec. 24. NORAD says Santa usually starts in the South Pacific and hits New Zealand and Australia before heading to Japan and Asia. Africa and Europe are next, followed by North America and South America. "Santa calls the shots," NORAD says on its website. "We just track him!” The site and social media following has grown tremendously.

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. NORAD has found that since the tradition has started a few common questions have been asked over the years. Among these kids usually want to know “Am I on the naughty or nice list?,” “Can you put my brother/sister on the naughty list?,” “Are you an Elf?” and “How much does it cost to adopt Santa’s Reindeers?”