How to follow Santa Claus this Christmas Eve • TechCrunch

If you’re a parent with young children, you’ll probably hear this often on Christmas Eve: “Where’s Santa Claus right now?” With tracking tools like the NORAD Santa Tracker and Google’s Santa Tracker, everyone can know when Santa is coming.

Here’s how to follow Santa’s journey this Christmas Eve.

Follow Santa with NORAD

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) got the very first Santa Claus tracker in 1955. Where before it was just a boring animation of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer flying on a map, NORAD has added tons of features in recent years, such as fun mini-games, videos, stories and Christmas music.

Rather than a 2D model, the NORAD Santa tracker has a 3D visual representation of Santa’s journey as the platform was built on Cesium’s open source 3D mapping library. It also uses Bing Maps satellite imagery, which makes the globe more “realistic”.

In addition to the tracker, users can also view a “Santa Cam,” which features videos of Santa traveling around the world delivering gifts to each child on the lovely list.

The NORAD website features Santa’s North Pole Village, which includes a holiday countdown, arcade-style games, kid-friendly music, an online library, and various videos that can be viewed on the channel. Official NORAD YouTube.

The NORAD Santa tracker is available at noradsanta.org, or you can download the official NORAD Tracks Santa app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The website is available in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian and Portuguese.

You can also follow Santa via NORAD Tracker social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For a more personal experience, call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6732) and you’ll speak to a volunteer at the organization’s call center who will let you know Santa’s location.

Additionally, through a partnership with Amazon, NORAD allows Amazon Alexa users to track Santa Claus. Users can open the Amazon Alexa app and go to “Skills & Games”, then search for “NORAD Tracks Santa” skill. Once enabled, you can ask, “Alexa, where’s Santa Claus?” You can also say “Alexa, call Santa” and the merry man will jump on the phone with you and your kids. You can also leave a voice message.

Follow Santa with Google

Google’s Santa Tracker was launched in 2004 and simulates tracking Santa Claus. The website features a live map of Santa’s current location, his next stop, a live video feed of his route, and the estimated time of arrival for each location. It also shows the total distance Santa Claus has traveled so far and the number of gifts he has delivered.

Throughout December, the page functions as Santa’s Village, where users can play mini-games, take quizzes, watch animated videos, and explore other interactive activities. For example, players can create their own elf in Google’s “Elf Maker” game and hold a concert with “Elf Jamband”. Kids can also learn to code with simple and fun tutorials like “Code Boogie”.

Additionally, users can seek help from Google Assistant to find out where Santa is. You can ask “Hey Google, where’s Santa Claus?” or “What’s up at the North Pole?” which connects you to Google’s North Pole Newscast where you can hear what Santa and his elves are up to that day.

Google Assistant also lets you call Santa himself. When you call him, Santa Claus will rehearse for a concert and ask for your musical expert advice.

And don’t forget to ask Google Assistant to tell you a Santa joke!