Santa Claus has begun his journey delivering presents around the world.
Anyone who wants to follow his journey can do so via the Norad Santa Tracker.
The famous Santa tracker, operated by the North American Aerospace Defence Command, has been running for more than 60 years.
He began his journey just after 9am UK time and has since delivered over 1.7 billion gifts.
How to follow Father Christmas on NORAD
The NORAD tracker can be accessed here.
NORAD claim to be able to track Santa using an expert radar system called the North Warning System, which can detect when he has departed from the North Pole. Satellites and fighter jets also help to pinpoint his whereabouts.
However, there is also a separate Google Santa tracker featuring children's games.
What route does Santa take?
According to NORAD, Santa began his mission on the International Date Line and is currently headed for Zhangye in China.
He will then head on to the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.
After a quick stop for milk and mince pies, he will glide up to Japan and the rest of eastern Asia before moving on to Africa.
From here, he will head on to Western Europe and later the US, Mexico and central and south America.
He will be accompanied by his trusted team of reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.
NORAD says: “Keep in mind, Santa’s route can be affected by weather, so it’s really unpredictable. NORAD coordinates with Santa’s Elf Launch Staff to confirm his launch time, but from that point on, Santa calls the shots. We just track him!”
How long does Santa’s route take?
NORAD says that Santa “does not experience time the way we do”.
“His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa it might last days, weeks or even months. Santa would not want to rush the important job of delivering presents to children and spreading joy to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions within his own time-space continuum,” they claim on their website.
