The military command responsible for protecting North American airspace has an important duty on Christmas Eve — following Santa's travels around the world.
NORAD said their technology can track Rudolph the Reindeer's red noseImage: NORAD/AP/picture alliance
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Children around the world can track the arrival of Santa Claus by following his movement on the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) website or app.
Santa has been dutifully delivering gifts to children around the world after taking off from the North Pole on Christmas Eve, the NORAD tracker shows.
By late Christmas Eve in Europe and early Sunday in the US, NORAD's tracker showed Santa as having delivered billions of gifts in various countries around the world. For Santa's precise location and the gift counter updated in real time, you can access NORAD's website here.
NORAD, which is responsible for protecting the skies over the US and Canada, has been tracking Santa's journey since 1955.
Unique global Christmas traditions: From witches to KFC
Whether roller-skating to church or being greeted by Donald Duck, Christmas in some countries features more than just Santa Claus, tinsel and turkey.
Image: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Roller-skating to church — Venezuela
While attending Christmas church services is the norm in most countries, Venezuelans take it up a notch: On December 24, they roller-skate to midnight Mass to commemorate the birth of Christ. While the belief is that it's the sunny south's answer to sledding in the snowy north, the practice that began in the 1960s still remains popular. Traffic is blocked for the skaters' safety.
Image: Schneider/dpa/picture alliance
Star of wonder — The Philippines
The story of Christmas is never complete without mention of the star of Bethlehem that led the three wise men to the manger of baby Jesus. In the Philippines, stars are depicted on vividly colored parols (from the Spanish "farol," which means lantern) that are hung outside homes during the Christmas season. Made of bamboo and Japanese paper, these festive lanterns symbolize hope and light.
Image: NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images
Befana, the Christmas witch — Italy
The kind-hearted Befana was intended to visit the newborn Jesus with the Magi, but she wanted to finish her work on the loom first. Later, the witch could not find her way alone, so on the night of January 5-6, she flies around the world looking for the child. She rewards good children with sweets; those who were bad get a piece of coal in the form of sweet sugar.
With less than 1% of its population identifying as Christian, Christmas is a secular holiday in Japan. Yet one tradition has evolved, featuring a jolly, bespectacled man with a white goatee who's not Santa Claus. Ever since Kentucky Fried Chicken launched its "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign in 1974, Colonel Sanders' famous fried chicken is now a Christmas tradition here.
Image: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Night of the Radishes — Mexico
Radishes have long been part of life in Oaxaca City, Mexico. Back in 1897, the city's mayor hit upon a whimsical pre-Christmas activity: the Night of the Radishes. Held every December 23, skilled local artists carve scenes of everyday life into locally grown radishes and display them at the local Christmas market. Given the season, Christian themes are also featured, like this Nativity scene here.
Image: Lora Grigorova/Demotix/picture alliance
From heaven to earth — Spain
Most Nativity scenes boast a "heavenly" look-and-feel, but in Catalonia, Spain, they include a distinctly human character: "El Caganer," or "the pooper." Often placed in a corner, it is a figurine of a peasant, wearing a traditional Catalan red cap, with his trousers down, defecating. Theories abound, but it's seen as a symbol of fertility among farmers, as fecal matter makes good manure.
Image: Reuters/A. Gea
Santa's not-so-jolly assistant — Austria
While St. Nick brings gifts to those who've been "nice," in Austria, his assistant the Krampus deals with those who've been "naughty." The Krampusnacht Festival, held on December 5 — the eve of St. Nicholas Day — celebrates this being who has "flaming coals for eyes, matted fur and twisting stag horns, who slaps people with birch twigs and kidnaps children ... so he can later drown or eat them."
Image: Werner Lang/imageBROKER/picture alliance
Gift of peace — China
Christmas isn't a typical cultural celebration in China, yet one distinctly local practice has recently evolved here. "Christmas Eve" in Mandarin translates to ping'anye, or "the evening of peace." That sounds like "pingguo," which means "apple." Thus, an innovative linguistic fusion has resulted in the popular gift of apples during Christmas known as "ping'anguo," or "peace apples."
Image: Liu Junfeng/Costfoto/picture alliance
Greetings from Donald Duck — Sweden
Every December 24 at 3 p.m., families sit down to watch a 1958 Walt Disney Christmas special, "Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas." According to news publisher 'The Local' in Sweden, more than 4.5 million people — almost half of the country's entire population, watched this hour-long special in 2020, making it Sweden's most watched TV show in modern history.
Image: Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection/picture alliance
Christmas in January — Ethiopia
And while December 25 is widely celebrated as the birth date of Christ in many Christian countries, Christmas — called Ganna or Genna — in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is observed on January 7. Many also participate in a special Advent fast of up to 43 days preceding Christmas, which is also known as the "Fast of the Prophets" (or Tsome Nebiyat).
German Christmas traditions are popular in the US. One of them is to hang a "Christmas pickle made in Germany" in the tree: Only nobody in Germany is familiar with that, and many in the US either. Either way, a fourth-generation glassblower from Thuringia, where the glass-pickle was invented in 1880, has been producing it ever since.
Image: Johannes Schmitt-Tegge/dpa/picture alliance
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US Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, the chief spokesperson of NORAD, said the command uses the same technology used "every single day" to keep North American skies safe. "We're able to follow the light from Rudolph's red nose."
Children can also call a number directly to NORAD staff members who provide updates on Santa's location.
The origins of tracking Santa
According to NORAD, the tradition began when a local newspaper advertisement informed children they could call Santa directly — only the contact number was misprinted.
Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the crew commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, the predecessor to NORAD. Answering it was US Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup.
Shoup was quick to realize the mistake that had been made and assured the child he was Santa. He then assigned a duty officer to continue answering calls.
In doing so, a holiday tradition was born, which NORAD has continued to this day.
This is the 68th year that volunteers, some 1,100 this year, are going to help answer calls in dedicated operations center at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.
"It's a bit of a bucket list item for some folks," says Mathias, calling the operations center "definitely the most festive place to be on December 24th."
This report was written in part with material from the Associated Press.
