As the anticipating builds for Santa’s arrival tonight, you can check in on his progress throughout the day with NORAD’s online tracker.

Typically NORAD takes thousands of calls from children across the country. But this year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, only a small number of volunteers will be answering the phones, according to NORAD. 

But there are other ways to track the big man in red as he makes his rounds and watch the total number of gifts delivered mount. 

His location will be broadcast from at noradsanta.org and the NORAD Santa App available on Google Play and the Apple App store.

Or you can get text updates at facebook.com/noradsanta and on Twitter @NoradSanta. OnStar and Amazon Alexa can also provide updates for those busy making Christmas cookies and other goodies. 

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If you want to be true to tradition and call NORAD, you may get through to a volunteer at 1-877-Hi-NORAD or you may hear the recorded message about Santa’s location. 

The tradition of calling NORAD to get updates about Santa was started in 1955. 

That year, on Christmas Eve, an advertisement from Sears, published in The Gazette, offered children the chance to call Santa — but listed the wrong number. Instead of calling Santa, kids reached Air Force Col. Harry Shoup — the commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command (a precursor to NORAD).

That day, a few Air Force officers answered calls from curious children and NORAD embraced the responsibility of providing updates about Kris Kringle to the world.

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