Where Is Santa Right Now? Live Santa Tracker
Where is Santa right now? Our live Santa tracker shows you on a world map. On Christmas Eve you can watch which country the sleigh is flying over, where it goes next and how many miles Santa has covered. Before then, a countdown ticks down to takeoff.
Santa's trip starts over the Pacific in the early morning of December 24, Eastern time. He reaches the East Coast around 10 PM Eastern on Christmas Eve and the West Coast three hours later, right in the window when NORAD says he makes his stops: between 9 PM and midnight, once children are asleep.1
Below the tracker you'll find the full route with Eastern and Pacific times, the story of the famous NORAD Santa tracker, its phone number, and a little math on how fast Santa would have to fly.
Live Santa tracker: here is Santa now
- Kiribati (Christmas Island)3:00 AM ET / 12:00 AM PT
- New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa4:00 AM ET / 1:00 AM PT
- Sydney and Melbourne6:00 AM ET / 3:00 AM PT
- Guam7:00 AM ET / 4:00 AM PT
- Japan and Korea8:00 AM ET / 5:00 AM PT
- China, the Philippines and Perth9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT
- Thailand and Vietnam10:00 AM ET / 7:00 AM PT
- India11:30 AM ET / 8:30 AM PT
- Dubai1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT
- Moscow, Turkey and Kenya2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
- Finland, Greece and South Africa3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT
- Germany, France and Italy4:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM PT
- London, Portugal and Iceland5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT
- Brazil and Argentina8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT
- Puerto Rico9:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM PT
- New York, Washington and Miami10:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM PT
- Chicago, Dallas and Mexico City11:00 PM ET / 8:00 PM PT
- Denver and Phoenix12:00 AM** ET / 9:00 PM PT
- Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas1:00 AM** ET / 10:00 PM PT
- Anchorage, Alaska2:00 AM** ET / 11:00 PM PT
- Hawaii3:00 AM** ET / 12:00 AM** PT
- American Samoa4:00 AM** ET / 1:00 AM** PT
The tracker runs right in your browser, no app needed. Can't wait for Christmas Eve? Tap "Play the flight as a preview" to watch the whole trip in one minute. On the night itself, leave it open on the TV or a tablet by the tree so the kids can see when Santa gets close.
Santa's trip in numbers
Santa's route: what time does Santa come to your state?
Santa flies from east to west with the night, so he reaches every place at about the same local time. Here are the key stops in Eastern and Pacific time:
| Place | Eastern time (ET) | Pacific time (PT) |
|---|---|---|
| Kiribati (Christmas Island) | 3:00 AM | 12:00 AM |
| Sydney and Melbourne | 6:00 AM | 3:00 AM |
| Guam | 7:00 AM | 4:00 AM |
| Japan and Korea | 8:00 AM | 5:00 AM |
| Germany, France and Italy | 4:00 PM | 1:00 PM |
| London, Portugal and Iceland | 5:00 PM | 2:00 PM |
| Puerto Rico | 9:00 PM | 6:00 PM |
| New York, Washington and Miami | 10:00 PM | 7:00 PM |
| Chicago, Dallas and Mexico City | 11:00 PM | 8:00 PM |
| Denver and Phoenix | 12:00 AM (Dec 25) | 9:00 PM |
| Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas | 1:00 AM (Dec 25) | 10:00 PM |
| Anchorage, Alaska | 2:00 AM (Dec 25) | 11:00 PM |
| Hawaii | 3:00 AM (Dec 25) | 12:00 AM (Dec 25) |
| American Samoa | 4:00 AM (Dec 25) | 1:00 AM (Dec 25) |
He starts in Kiribati because Christmas Eve begins there first: the islands sit in the UTC+14 time zone, 19 hours ahead of New York. Guam, a US territory, is one of his early stops, and American Samoa, also a US territory, is his very last one.
What time does Santa come to my house?
NORAD's answer is honest: only Santa knows his exact route, but "it appears he arrives only when children are asleep." According to NORAD, he typically makes his stops between 9 PM and midnight.1 So yes, bedtime really does matter on December 24.
The NORAD Santa tracker: how a typo started it all
In December 1955, a Sears ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper told kids to call Santa. The number was misprinted. It rang on a red phone at the Continental Air Defense Command, and Col. Harry Shoup picked up.2
A small voice asked, "Is this Santa Claus?" Shoup, a strict officer, thought it was a joke at first. Then he played along and had his staff tell kids where Santa was on the radar. He became known as the "Santa Colonel."2 When NORAD was formed in 1958, it took over the tradition.4
Today it is a huge operation. In 2025 more than 1,000 Canadian and American service members, Defense Department civilians and local volunteers answered calls at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado.3 On Christmas Eve 2024 they logged 380,000 calls.1
NORAD Santa tracker phone number and how to follow along
Kids can call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) and talk to a real person about Santa's location.3 In 2025 the lines were open from 4 AM to midnight Mountain Time on December 24.1 You can also follow along on noradsanta.org, which in 2024 launched on December 1 with a countdown, games and "Santa's North Pole Village."5 It comes in nine languages.1 NORAD also posts updates on social media and through Amazon Alexa, SiriusXM and OnStar.3
NORAD vs. Google Santa Tracker
| Tracker | Since | What makes it special |
|---|---|---|
| NORAD Tracks Santa | 1955 | Run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, with a phone hotline and more than 1,000 volunteers |
| Google Santa Tracker | 2004 | Games and activities in Santa's Village, plus a live map on Christmas Eve |
| Our tracker above | 2026 | Runs in your browser with a live map, a countdown and times in Eastern and Pacific time |
Google started its own Santa tracker in 2004, when about 25,000 people followed it. It formally partnered with NORAD in 2007, and the two split in 2012.6 That same year, NORAD's site counted 22.3 million unique visitors in December.6
How fast would Santa have to fly?
Spy magazine did the math in 1990, tongue firmly in cheek. With about 31 hours of Christmas thanks to the time zones, Santa would need 822.6 visits per second. His sleigh would move at 650 miles per second, about 3,000 times the speed of sound.7
Kids who ask how that's possible may also be asking a bigger question. Our article Is Santa real? helps with that talk. And to find out who pulls that sleigh, see Santa's reindeer names. If your family has a scout elf, it flies home with Santa tonight too: more in our Elf on the Shelf guide.
Share this tracker
Do you run a website for families or kids? Feel free to link to the tracker:
<a href="https://personalizedsantavideo.com/blog/where-is-santa-tracker/">Where is Santa right now? Live Santa tracker</a>
Santa tracker: frequently asked questions
Where is Santa right now?
On Christmas Eve, the live tracker on this page shows which country Santa is flying over right now and where he goes next. Before Christmas Eve, a countdown runs until takeoff, and Santa is still at the North Pole with the elves.
What time does Santa come to the US?
Our tracker has Santa reach each US time zone around 10 PM local time on December 24: 10 PM Eastern on the East Coast, 10 PM Pacific on the West Coast. That fits NORAD, which says he typically makes his stops between 9 PM and midnight, once the kids are asleep.
When does the NORAD Santa tracker start?
In 2024 the NORAD Tracks Santa website launched on December 1 with a countdown, games and music. Live tracking runs on December 24. In 2025 the phone hotline was staffed from 4 AM to midnight Mountain Time on Christmas Eve, according to CBS News.
What is the NORAD Santa tracker phone number?
1-877-HI-NORAD, which is 1-877-446-6723. On Christmas Eve, volunteers answer and tell kids where Santa is.
Where does Santa start his trip?
In Kiribati in the Pacific, where Christmas Eve begins first because the islands sit at UTC+14. On the East Coast it is still the early morning of December 24 then.
How did the NORAD Santa tracker start?
With a typo. In 1955 a Sears ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper printed the wrong phone number, and kids reached Col. Harry Shoup at the air defense command. He played along, and the tradition was born.
Sources
- 1CBS News Sacramento: Santa tracker 2025, where is Santa right now? (cbsnews.com)
- 2NPR: NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport (2014) (npr.org)
- 3Stars and Stripes: NORAD Santa tracker on Christmas Eve (2025) (stripes.com)
- 4ABC7 News: How the NORAD Santa tracker began (abc7news.com)
- 5WTOP / CBS News: NORAD prepares for another year of tracking Santa (2024) (wtop.com)
- 6MarTech: Google's Santa tracking tradition and NORAD (2014) (martech.org)
- 7Spy Magazine, January 1990: Is there a Santa Claus? (transcript) (stanford.edu)