NORAD Tracker: Santa In Bermuda At 11.35pm

[Updated: The live Santa tracker concluded at 7am, and according to the tracker Santa was recorded over Bermuda at 11.35pm.]

According to the popular NORAD tracker, Santa Claus has already passed over much of the world as of 10pm this evening [Dec 24] and is presently finishing his journey in Europe.

The NORAD tracker follows Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world. This year the tracker showed him starting in Australasia, then traveling across Asia, then heading over Europe and Africa. He has not yet made his way across the Atlantic to Bermuda.

NORAD runs a fully featured website to track Santa in 3D, and updates on Santa’s progress were also made available on social media. Last year, the website had over 22 million visitors.

According to the Santa tracker provided by Google, as of this writing [10pm] Santa has delivered millions of gifts and traveled over 200,000 kilometres.

Update: The live tracker concluded at 7am with Santa back in the North Pole

Created by a 1958 agreement between Canada and the United States, the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD] is responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of both countries.

The Santa program began in 1955, when a Sears department store placed an advertisement in a newspaper which told children that they could telephone Santa Claus and included a number for them to call, however the phone number printed was incorrect.

The calls instead went to the CONAD Air Defense Command Center, and Colonel Harry Shoup told his staff to give all children who called in a “current location” for Santa Claus. A tradition began which continued when NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958.

Today, NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible and the team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than 200 countries and territories.

Some of the questions asked by children who called the programme include “Am I on the nice list or the naughty list?”,”Are you an elf?” and “Can you put my brother on the naughty list?”

Update 11.40pm: After traveling to Halifax, Canada, Santa made his way to Bermuda at approximately 11.35pm this evening before making his way to Venezuela. His appearance in Bermuda at this time was confirmed by a tweet from the official NORAD account.

Screenshot from the NORAD tracker showing Santa leaving Bermuda, click to enlarge:

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