Santa tracker 2025 live – where is Santa right now and how to track him with NORAD and Google
· TechRadarSanta tracker 2025 live – where is Santa right now and how to track him with NORAD and Google
Santa Claus is coming to town!
News By Josephine Watson Contributions from Marc McLaren last updated 24 December 2025
(Image: © Google) Jump To:
The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived – it’s time for TechRadar’s annual Santa Tracker!
We’re going to be monitoring St. Nick’s whereabouts as he delivers all the best tech gifts this Christmas, following along using the two most popular trackers; NORAD and Google.
Every year, millions tune in to watch Kris Kringle’s annual gift-giving globe-trot. It's practically a sporting event, with both the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google running Santa Trackers to follow his every movement.
Of course, there's more to Christmastime than watching an animated sleigh jet across the skies, so we're also sharing global festive traditions as he travels, offering holiday entertainment recommendations and maybe even sharing some hot last-minute tech bargains to keep you entertained.
In keeping with the continued 'AI everywhere' theme of the 2020s, we've also asked Firefly AI to create some images of the big man himself and the elves back at home as they prep for some serious gift-giving. They're only slightly cursed.
What is a Santa tracker?
Santa tracking is a well-loved tradition increasingly observed worldwide, but it all began with a happy accident in 1955, making this the 70th year of Santa tracking silliness. According to NORAD, a Sears catalog accidentally printed the Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center’s phone number instead of a Santa hotline and began to receive calls from children hopeful to speak to Klaus himself.
Seeing an opportunity for a little festive fun (and some positive PR), CONAD began publishing press releases on Santa’s whereabouts every year, handing the reins to NORAD after its formation in 1958. In 2004, Google released its own Santa Tracker, which offers a very different experience but is still just as fun.
Fast forward to today and there are a number of ways to find out what's happening to Santa, but these two are the key ones to look out for, in our expert opinion.
Which is the best Santa tracker? NORAD vs Google
NORAD Santa Tracker
The original way of following Santa and, some would say, still the best, this website is actually run by the US military. It fuses gruff colonels presenting a video about Santa Claus with live, up-to-the-minute info on where the man in the big red suit is.
You can download the app on the App Store or Google Play Store, and from there you'll be presented with some mini-games to play as well as being able to follow the progress of the present-giving live.
It's quite basic compared to other trackers, lacking a lot of polish and website design. However, it's also the most popular and has a heartwarming history behind it – as well as an army of volunteers ready to take your call to find out where Santa is, and the power of Verizon's network in a now 23-year partnership.
NORAD has also added an AI chatbot called Radar to help you spot Santa, but if you prefer to use the phone then dialling +1 (877) HI-NORAD will do the trick too.
- Check out the NORAD Santa Tracker
Google Santa Tracker
A more recent addition to the Santa tracking mix, Google's Santa Tracker has been going since 2004, combining the power of Google Maps with the savvy knowledge of where Father Christmas is.
While Google doesn't have the same satellite tracking power as NORAD, one has to assume the search giant has struck a deal with the North Pole to figure out where he is in real-time using search and radar and lasers and... stuff. Don't ask us to interpret the magic.
Backing up the Santa Tracker are a whole host of minigames to play, as well as a month-long website encouraging children to learn to code while they encounter a winter wonderland.
There are some pro-Google tools moments in this Santa Tracker – the Quick Draw game is designed to teach Google's image-recognition software to improve, which feels a bit odd – but it's a wonderfully designed site and arguably the most visually accessible way to follow Santa.
You can download the app from the Google Play Store, but in our eyes the mobile site is just as good and more accessible for iPhone users, plus Google's Santa Tracker has the best and easiest-to-use desktop experience, too.
- Try the Google Santa Tracker
Live updates
Refresh Get notified of updates 2025-12-24T10:17:44.591Z
NORAD still hasn't updated, but Google is showing Santa delivering gifts in Anadyr – and says he's now delivered 100,000-plus gifts in 15 minutes. That's probably more than even Amazon can manage!
2025-12-24T10:14:39.881Z
Santa is about to reach Anadyr, in Russia. According to Wikipedia (no, I did not know this myself beforehand), Anadyr is the easternmost town in Russia. And very pretty it looks too.
2025-12-24T10:12:33.995Z
With Santa already hard at work we're still waiting for the NORAD Santa Tracker to get a lock on his location – but we expect the big man has his most excitable elf currently working on the issue, and for now, you can stick with using the Google Santa Tracker.
Managing these trackers isn't easy, considering how fast Santa is flying around the world in order to deliver every present on time. We're hoping the reindeer get Christmas Day off.
Gifts delivered count: 60,000 and rising fast.
2025-12-24T10:06:04.148Z
Santa's next stop, according to Google, will be Provideniya in Russia. The pictures it has of the region show a very pretty if slightly isolated little town.
NORAD still has Santa preparing, although it does have a new message that "NORAD radars and satellites are ready to track Santa!"
2025-12-24T10:00:28.562Z
And he's off (at least on the Google tracker)! We can confirm that Santa is now heading over the Arctic Ocean and has already delivered nearly 900 presents. St Nicholas is good at this, right?
It's now Christmas Day somewhere... did you know the earliest time zone on planet Earth is UTC+14:00? And it didn't even officially exist until 1994. The islands of Kiribati have now ticked over to Christmas Day, though with a population of under 120,000 Santa doesn't have too many presents to deliver.
As yet NORAD hasn't updated its 2D or 3D maps – but we're watching closely for the next update.
2025-12-24T09:58:46.862Z
Folks we're about t-minus 2 minutes from the big take-off – over on the Google Santa Tracker the map view is showing the man of the moment preparing to leave the North Pole.
Meanwhile the NORAD Santa Tracker is still showing a picture of Father Christmas packing up presents. He's cutting it mighty fine here, but we assume after all these years he knows what he's doing.
2025-12-24T09:53:42.802Z
This being the age of AI and all, I thought I'd ask Gemini, Google's AI chatbot, how fast Santa's sleigh travels.
It put a lot of thought into its very detailed answer, so I won't include it all – but its 'Short Answer' was as follows:
To deliver presents to every celebrating household in one night, Santa's sleigh must travel at approximately 1,300 miles per second (about 2,000 km/s).
That is roughly 6,000 times the speed of sound (Mach 6,000).
The Calculation: The Math Behind the Magic
To arrive at that number, physicists and mathematicians (most notably Roger Highfield, former editor of New Scientist) use the following variables:
The Stops: There are roughly 2.1 billion children in the world. If we assume Santa visits only households that celebrate Christmas, that leaves about 300 to 800 million households to visit.
The Time: Santa doesn't just have one night. By traveling East to West and using the Earth's rotation and time zones to his advantage, he can stretch "Christmas Eve" into roughly 31 to 48 hours.
The Distance: To reach all those houses distributed across the Earth's habitable landmass, he must travel roughly 221 million miles (355 million km).
The Result: Dividing that massive distance by the 31+ hour window means Santa must maintain a cruising speed of 1,300 miles per second.
It then goes into some detail about the laws of physics, but I think that's enough math for one Santa Tracker live blog!
2025-12-24T09:39:50.895Z
There's about 20 minutes to go until Santa takes off, according to Google. NORAD's countdown has already reached zero, but it still says he's preparing, so I think both sites agree that he'll be leaving at about 10am GMT / 5am ET / 2am PT / 9pm AEDT.
Here's hoping he doesn't have a last-minute flat tire on that sleigh…
2025-12-24T09:31:43.814Z
My favorite of the NORAD games is the charmingly named Santa Games (which is confusing, as they are pretty much all Santa games, not just this one).
Anyway, Santa Games is a Mario-style platformer in which you control the bearded one, avoiding goblin-type creatures (I didn't know goblins were an occupational hazard for Santa), collecting presents (good), the letters of the word Santa (good) and diamonds (confusing – why does Santa want diamonds?)
This one is actually pretty fun. But difficult though – it's proper old-school in that regard.
2025-12-24T09:28:09.790Z
While we wait for things to kick off properly, let's return to gaming (because today is not a day for proper work).
NORAD has games in its Arcade section too. They are… how do I say this kindly… not quite as impressive as Google's.
I just tried the 3D Santa Run game, and it's fairly terrifying – but why don't you give it a go and see if you can beat my terrible high score of 600.
2025-12-24T09:19:50.735Z
Either way, we have good news! Because the NORAD tracking site has confirmed: "Current conditions at the North Pole indicate good weather for flying."
That's what we like to hear.
2025-12-24T09:19:17.617Z
Right, so NORAD is currently showing an image of Santa preparing. Maybe he won't actually take off for a little while?
2025-12-24T09:16:16.855Z
And… NORAD is back. Phew!
Well, sort of. The website is now online again, and displays a message saying "The wait is over. Start tracking Santa now'.
However, the tracking isn't active yet. Maybe Santa needs to buy NORAD some new computers for Christmas?
2025-12-24T09:12:58.534Z Why iPhone 18 won't come until 2027, Samsung's Trifold disappoints & OpenAI might lose the AI race - YouTube
While we wait for NORAD to get back up and running, and for Santa to take off on Google's tracker, we have suggestions for plenty of other ways you can spend your time.
For instance, if you want something to watch this Christmas but are tired of the same old Hallmark Holiday movies you can check out the latest episode of the TechRadar Podcast instead!
In this edition, we debate which of the biggest tech stories this year were naughty or nice and make our predictions for 2026. Consider it a must watch!
2025-12-24T09:05:17.321Z
So, as it stands, NORAD is reporting that we should return on December 1. Oh dear.
For now, we'll have to stick with Google – and that's fine, because there's so much going on over there that you could spend months exploring that site.
Indeed, Google's Santa Tracker already has its map live ahead of the big man's departure in about 55 minutes. It's currently showing a live feed of the preparations and shows his location as 'Santa's Village, North Pole' :)
2025-12-24T09:01:46.959Z
Okay, so NORAD's Santa Tracker has reached zero and inevitably… the website has stopped working properly. This seems to happen every year at the start, but it always gets fixed quickly. And in fairness, they do have a lot going on.
2025-12-24T08:52:59.300Z
There's now just 7 minutes until Santa takes off, according to NORAD. Exciting!
This just in: Santa is preparing for lift-off! Before he begins his epic gift-giving voyage around the world, Santa needs to do his final checks. Reindeer? Check. Reins? Check. Presents?
...
He forgot the presents. That's what last minute checks are for!
2025-12-24T08:47:37.846Z
The Music Stage on NORAD's website includes some of my favorite Christmas songs of all time, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Here Comes Santa Claus, Winter Wonderland and Sleigh Ride.
Okay, so you don't get the versions recorded by The Crystals, Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans, Darlene Love and The Ronettes respectively, but they are all available on your streaming service of choice if you want those. And you should do – it's not Christmas without Darlene Love and The Crystals…
2025-12-24T08:39:41.911Z
Speaking of the NORAD website, they have a bunch of things to occupy your time while you wait. There are games, of course, and there's also the HQ, where you can learn about NORAD and its mission and history.
Want more? Well, head to the Library and you can learn all about Santa, his sleigh and his reindeer. There's the Music Stage – where you can listen to his favorite songs – The Theater, where you can watch films about him, and a Gift Shop where you can buy Santa merch.
2025-12-24T08:37:46.134Z
Quick time check: there's now only 23 minutes until NORAD's Santa Tracker starts! Not long to wait now, everyone…
2025-12-24T08:30:51.737Z
So, what can you expect to see once Santa takes off? Well, Google uses its Maps technology to plot the bearded one's progress, as well as providing a helpful tally of how many gifts he's delivered so far and some useful information about the local area.
NORAD, meanwhile, has the advantage of having actual satellite images of Santa on his sleigh, rather than just a cartoon. Our suggestion: follow both and get double the fun. (You'll find the links just above this post.)
2025-12-24T08:23:29.131Z
One of my favorites among Google's games is Quick Draw – although I'm pretty awful at it.
How does it work? Well the robot asks you to draw something Christmassy, then tries to guess what it is. It's like Pictionary, but with a robot rather than your family all shouting at you. The effect is much the same though, with it getting repeatedly annoyed at me and saying "I don't know what that is!"
Interestingly, the robot is called Tensor – which is the same as the machine-learning chip within Google's Pixel phones. Coincidence? I think not.
2025-12-24T08:09:17.810Z
While we're patiently waiting for Santa's reindeers to hoist him into the air, there are a ton of ways to pass the time on both the Google Santa Tracker and the NORAD Santa Tracker.
Head to the Google site and you can play a variety of games: from bouncing presents into their targets to taking down elves with snowballs. Just click the menu button in the top left to see the games gallery.
2025-12-24T07:54:01.106Z
Whether it's right about the takeoff time or not, Google's Santa Tracker site really is a wonderful thing, and I particularly love the little video that plays at the start. It's enough to get even the hardest-hearted Grinch into the festive spirit. But, if anyone from Google is reading this, I do have a slight issue with it – and it concerns penguins.
Look, we all know Santa lives at the North Pole. But we also know that penguins are southern-hemisphere creatures. They don't live in the North Pole. Then again, maybe Santa has flown them out there to help him prepare for Christmas – they do seem quite good at getting him ready for his flight, after all.
2025-12-24T07:46:18.044Z
And… I'm back! Good morning, everyone.
The good news is that it's now Christmas Eve nearly everywhere in the world – including in the UK, where I am.
The bad news is that I still need to do all of my wrapping sometime in the next 12 hours or so – let's hope Santa is better organized, given that he gets going in only just over an hour, according to NORAD. Google, meanwhile, says he still has a little over 2hrs until takeoff – so it's giving him a little lie-in, maybe.
2025-12-24T00:25:22.476Z
Whether Santa takes off in eight-and-a-bit hours or nine-and-a-bit, the important thing is that we've got a little while to wait, still. And that means there's time for me to get some sleep before liftoff.
So, I'll leave it there for a few hours – I'll be back online bright and early for the big moment.
2025-12-24T00:23:14.642Z
Google, meanwhile, has Santa taking flight an hour after that, at 10am GMT / 5am ET / 2am PT / 9pm AEDT.
Why the difference? Who knows. And which one is right? We can't say for sure, but our guess is that there's some kind of Christmas magic going on here and both are correct.
Anyway, the important thing is that he visits everyone at some point over the course of the night, right?
2025-12-24T00:22:15.877Z
So, let's take a little look at what the NORAD and Google Santa Tracker sites are saying about Santa's departure time.
On NORAD, St Nick is due to take off in 8hrs and 41mins, which would put it at 9am GMT / 4am ET / 1am PT / 8pm AEDT.
2025-12-24T00:01:56.560Z
Down under in Australia, meanwhile, Santa gets a nice cold beer to help him beat the heat, whereas Danish families leave out a bowl of rice pudding with cinnamon called Risengrod for the elves.
In the US, Santa gets milk and cookies, and Argentina sees the reindeer rejuvenated with hay and water.
2025-12-23T23:51:17.076Z
The big man himself is readying all stations to set off on his annual world tour, but there's still some time left to get yourself ready for his arrival.
Here in the UK, that means leaving carrots for Santa's reindeer, and Santa receives a mince pie and sometimes even some kind of alcoholic tipple like sherry or brandy (or Guiness, in some Irish households).
And look, we have a photo of him enjoying just that kind of feast. Okay, it's not really a photo, obviously – it's an image we generated using Adobe Firefly. Looks pretty accurate though, right?
2025-12-23T11:21:05.165Z
Hello everyone 👋
My name's Marc and running this live blog is easily the highlight of my year. I'll be your guide for the next hour or so before getting a little sleep, then picking it up again in the morning. I'll be joined over the following 24 hours by several other TechRadar elves, all eager to track Santa as he makes his way around the world.
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