How to track Santa Claus this Christmas Eve with NORAD's 2025 tracker

It started on Christmas Eve in 1955, when an eager child picked up the phone to call Santa Claus and instead accidentally called a U.S. military air defense facility.

That facility is operated by Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), the precursor to today's North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and should have only been reachable by a select few high-ranking officers and the President of the United States. But on Christmas Eve 1955, confused airmen usually tasked with tracking aircraft from foreign airspace ended up impersonating Santa Claus thanks to that child who dialed a wrong number. The accident quickly became a tradition and, like many other traditions, its origin story began to grow ever more elaborate over the years, sometimes involving a misprinted phone number in an advertisement.

But whatever the truth of that first fateful phone call, by 1960, NORAD was posting public updates on Santa's position each Christmas, and 2025 is no different. "This Christmas season marks seven decades of the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracking Santa Claus on radar as he flies his reindeer-powered sleigh around the globe," the U.S. Department of Defense wrote in a statement. "Each year on Dec. 24, Santa Claus and his reindeer launch from the North Pole very early in the morning for their famous trip around the world. The minute they launch, NORAD starts to track him."

But even though NORAD tracks Santa's flight around the world on Christmas Eve, that doesn't mean the air defense command knows Kris Kringle's route ahead of time.

"NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route, which means we cannot predict where and when he will arrive at your house," a senior NORAD official said in the statement.

The U.S. military's statement notes that fighter pilots have intercepted Santa Claus' sleigh many times over the years as he enters NORAD's airspace. A previous DOD statement that is no longer available online (an archived version is available here) states NORAD is able to track Santa using infrared sensors on satellites that are designed to detect the heat from rocket or missile launches.

"As Santa flies through the skies, satellites track his position by detecting Rudolph's nose, which gives off an infrared signature similar to that of a missile," the statement reads.

Since the 1970s, NORAD has used a series of satellites known as the Defense Support Program (DSP) to detect the bright flashes of heat and light emitted by intercontinental ballistic missiles and rocket launches.

In addition, the U.S. Space Force is currently launching satellites to build out a new infrared early-warning constellation known as SBIRS-GEO (Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit) to boost the U.S. military's ability to detect and track launches. These satellites feature sensors that continuously scan the entire Earth, providing 24/7 missile warning capability. The sensors aboard SBIRS satellites are more also sensitive than those on DSP spacecraft, which will eventually be phased out as the SBIRS constellation is completed.

Over 1,000 volunteers including both civilians and uniformed military personnel give their time each Christmas at NORAD's headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The volunteers answer hundreds of thousands of phone calls each year, the DOD's statement says.

NORAD's Santa Tracker goes online at 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) on Dec. 24. Children of all ages eager to know where St. Nick is can call (+1) 877-HI-NORAD (877-446-6723) or visit NORADSanta.org.

NORAD's Santa Tracker also has apps available for Android and iOS.