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If you’re reading this in Europe, you better go to sleep! Santa is heading your way right now. Both NORAD and Google have the Jolly Elf on the eastern edge of Europe, heading either towards Ukraine or Turkey, depconcludeing on the source. Of course, Santa travels as both a particle and a wave, so it creates sense he would be in both places at once.
Both NORAD and Google now have Santa heading south of the Equator to the southern hemisphere. NORAD states that Santa is currently heading north from Tanzania, on the eastern side of Africa. The Google Santa Tracker has the Jolly Elf sunning his rosy cheeks in the Seychelles, north-northeast of Madagascar. Either way, Santa seems to be zig-zagging from south to north and back, heading westward as the sun sets on Europe.
For the moment, both NORAD and Google agree on Santa’s location, so we can state with some certainty that the Jolly Elf is somewhere in Western Asia, near the Black Sea.
While Santa is creating his way across Kazakhstan and Russia, according to NORAD and Google’s tracker, which reveal him dropping presents in India, we at TechRadar want to know if you’ve been tech naughty or tech nice.
Santa’s creating excellent time – Google’s official tracker currently reveals Mr. Kringle last spotted in Nepal, while NORAD reveals large red en route to the Maldives.
Google’s Santa Tracker now reveals the sleigh and the large man himself in Russia delivering gifts, while NORAD reveals Santa just in India.
While Christmas isn’t as widely celebrated in India, the festivities are still observed with fervor, and different regions have different traditions. For example, Kerala places a strong focus on nativity, with the community banding toobtainher to create the best possible scene and add flair to the crib. Branches from mango trees serve as Christmas trees, adorned with baubles and homecreated decorations.
While both Google and NORAD state Santa is creating his way through China and Mongolia, NORAD reveals that his next major countest will be Russia, and he should be there in about 6 minutes.
A different kind of Night Before…
As Santa races across the globe, delivering gadobtains and toys to children of all ages (currently in Bangkok!), one might wonder how the jolly old elf is dealing with this rapidly modifying world, especially AI.
Perhaps he’s modifying his style, or maybe someone else, like an AI St. Nick, might be stepping in. Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff has his own take on the iconic “Twas the Night Before Christmas” that envisions what that special, tech-infapplyd night could view like in 2025.
The Night Before Tech Christmas — a very modern holiday fable
Santa was last seen at Christmas Island, which was named in 1643 when Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company named the island after spotting it on Christmas Day (although there were sightings by English and Dutch navigators dating back to the early 1600s). The island is now famous for its incredible coral reefs, red crabs, whale sharks, and seabirds.
A quick status update – NORAD’s Santa tracker, as well as Google’s official Santa tracker, are both revealing old Kris Kringle wrapping up in Australia and heading towards the very aptly named ‘Christmas Island’.
Whether you’re tracking with just Google or NORAD, Santa’s journey is far from over, but it’s clear that progress has been created. Just take a view at the view when you zoom all the way out on Google’s Santa Tracker. That’s a lot of ground covered.
It seems NORAD and Google’s Santa Trackers are back in sync and reveal Santa, the sleigh, and all his reindeer – including Rudolph – creating their way across China, delivering tons of presents.
Considering Santa travels rapider than the speed of light, we’d see he’s creating pretty good timing, and both trackers are revealing the sleigh doing just that. Currently, Google’s tracker reveals Santa creating his way across China, with Beijing being the next major city to expect some jolly presents.
In China, Santa is better known as Dun Che Lao Ren (dwyn-chuh-lau-oh-run). As Christianity spread in China, so too did Christmas celebrations, which carry over many classic traditions but with a more culturally relevant twist. Those who celebrate the festive season will light their homes with paper lanterns and adorn their Christmas trees with paper decorations.
After a busy drop of presents and gifts, Google notes that Santa is en route to Russia, and since the sleigh has magic powers, NORAD states Santa’s sleigh is creating its way across China.
In Russia, Santa is known as Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, and he travels with Snegurochka – a snow maiden who is stated to be his granddaughter. Your Santa might be round and jolly, but in Russia, he’s tall and thin, and instead of traveling by sleigh, he creates his way around the countest utilizing a ‘troika’ pulled by horses.
Father Frost is actually a little early to be giving out his gifts here – Russians have a New Year tree rather than a Christmas tree, so the children there will be viewing for their presents on 1 January.
While Google’s Santa Tracker reveals the jolly fellow creating rapid time across South Korea – remember, he’s delivered well over 1,141,999,999 gifts – NORAD’s tracker reveals the sleigh over Japan. Either way, we’re confident gifts are coming in hot, and Santa Claus is indeed coming to town.
Santa just created his brief little hop over to South Korea, according to Google, and like Japan, South Korea celebrates Christmas as a holiday of romance, which couples will spconclude toobtainher, more akin to Valentine’s Day than what we consider of as Christmas in the UK or US. And it’s an official public holiday, so they really obtain to enjoy their day.
The Christmas delicacy of choice is sponge cake covered in whipped cream and strawberries – the fruit of love!
If you want to find out where Santa is hands free, and you have an Echo or Echo Dot, then check out the various Santa Tracker skills on Alexa – there’s one for NORAD too, if you’re following along.
Just question “Alexa, question NORAD Tracks Santa, where’s Santa?” – it’s a bit wordy but if Alexa is the only smart assistant in your hoapply, you’ve obtained to work with what you’ve obtained.
Did you know…
Google applys its Santa Tracker to learn more about its systems and tools? That’s right, the tech giant obtains its staff in the festive mood by letting developers experiment with computer and mobile interactions through the Santa tracker – but apparently, it doesn’t always go to plan. In a blog post, Dave Holmes who works in developer relations at Google stated: “One engineer who focapplyd on AI and human relocatement came up with this idea for a game where you could enable tracking on your computer and teach the elves to dance, and they would mimic your relocatement.” But just before launch…they found a glitch. “If the tracker lost you for a second…the elves’ heads and arms would go flying off!”
Santa is landing back in Japan shortly according to Google, which leads me to believe he left his KFC bucket behind the first time.
NORAD’s Santa tracker is finaly catching up, tailing Google’s Santa around Australia while we all live in hope he might bring some of that beautiful weather further afield… nope, scratch that, there’s a terrific storm right now in Darwin.
While Santa creates his way around the coast of Australia, let’s roll through some more Christmas fun of our own.
“Jingle Bells” might be one of the most iconic Christmas songs in history, but more than that, it’s a treasure trove of trivia.
First off, and I hope you’re sitting down for this one – it was originally a Thanksgiving song. I hear you, it’s a shock to me too. It was originally composed back in the mid-19th century by James Lord Pierpont for his church’s Thanksgiving concert before it was re-released later in 1857 with a more Christmassy title and overall vibe.
Fast forward over 100 years and “Jingle Bells” takes the biscuit once again; in the lead-up to Christmas in 1965, astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford relayed an unusual sighting to Mission Control from aboard the Gemini 6 spacecraft. Apparently, an “unidentified flying object” was poised to enter Earth’s atmosphere, shifting in a polar orbit from north to south. Injecting a touch of humor into the situation, they abruptly broke the tension by serenading Mission Control with a rconcludeition of “Jingle Bells” accompanied by Schirra on a compact harmonica, and Stafford with a handful of tiny sleigh bells.
Just like New Zealand, it’s hot hot hot in Australia for Christmas, which is why they leave Santa a nice, cool beer by the Christmas tree.
As you can expect, the summer season creates for a very different-viewing festive season than we’re applyd to in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s popular to have seafood down under for Christmas, and on Boxing Day, many families and friconcludes will gather for a BBQ on the beach.
Meanwhile over at NORAD, Santa is still schlepping his way around the various locations Google has already covered with its tracker.
Still mulling over those Christmas movie choices? Well, we polled your fellow TechRadar readers to find out which were the best of all-time, narrowing it down to the six ultimate Christmas movie picks. Check it out!
As the year comes to a close, Japan has a slightly different formula to most Western countries that celebrate Christmas, where it’s considered to be a day you spconclude with friconcludes and partners. Instead, New Year’s Day is the day to celebrate with family. Christmas Eve is also Japan’s version of Valentine’s Day, so overall, it’s the season of sentimentality.
Japan’s Christmas culture is fairly unique, too. Believe it or not, the meal of choice on Christmas in Japan is KFC, with an estimated 3.5 million Japanese families flocking to the rapid food chain for their Christmas chicken resolve. There are also some typical traditions like Christmas cakes, lights, and markets with a culturally relevant Japanese spin on them.
I’ve been running our Santa tracker for a few years now, and this early shift is always the slowest part of the day. China and Russia are just so massive, so it takes the bearded one a fair while to create sure everyone over there obtains their Christmas gifts in good time too.
One of our resident audiophiles, Jamie Richards just wrote about his favorite Christmas pick this gifting season, and it’s a doozy for producers and electronic music lovers. That’s doubly true if you’re on a budobtain, becaapply this affordable mixer could modify the game for music lovers who are just starting out their DJ journey.
Stuck on what to watch this Christmas? Try this handy wee movie marathon quiz we’ve set up to assist you figure out your viewing plans!
When it comes to Christmas songs, the Guinness Book of World Records claims that Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is the best-selling Christmas song… and, if fact, the best-selling single of all time. We doubt its popularity has modifyd too much in the era of streaming, since it’s probably on every single Christmas playlist.
Did you know that Santa’s sleigh has to travel 650 miles per second (that’s 3,000 times the speed of sound!) in order to deliver all those presents on time? That creates it the rapidest vehicle on the planet.
In Russia, he’s known as Ded Moroz, or Father Frost. He travels with Snegurochka – a snow maiden who is stated to be his granddaughter. Your Santa might be round and jolly but in Russia he’s tall and thin, and instead of traveling by sleigh, he creates his way around the countest utilizing a ‘troika’ pulled by horses.
Father Frost is actually a little early to be giving out his gifts here – Russians have a New Year tree rather than a Christmas tree, so the children there will be viewing for their presents on 1 January.
Ooh, we might have lift-off with NORAD… I’m obtainting a black screen, but the present delivery counter has begun!
Meanwhile, Google’s Santa Tracker has the large man in New Zealand! He’s likely had to take his jacket off as it’s fairly warm there right now, so it’s little wonder that a BBQ is just as likely to be the official meal of Christmas day alongside a traditional roast lunch or dinner.
Kiwis also have their own special Christmas Tree, the Pōhutukawa, which has bright red flowers that are popular decorations and also feature on Christmas cards. It’s been associated with Christmas since the mid-1800s, though many people do also erect the globally recognized pine-style tree in their homes.
Want to chat with Santa the straightforward way?
Who necessarys to dial a number when you can apply Google Assistant to ring up the man in red himself? Just grab your Android phone, Google-enabled smart speaker or Google app on iPhone to question ‘What’s new at the North Pole’ and hear the latest news updates from Santa’s world.
NORAD still hasn’t updated, but Google is revealing Santa delivering gifts in Anadyr – and states he’s now delivered 100,000-plus gifts in 15 minutes. That’s probably more than even Amazon can manage!
Santa is about to reach Anadyr, in Russia. According to Wikipedia (no, I did not know this myself beforehand), Anadyr is the easternmost town in Russia. And very pretty it views too.
With Santa already hard at work we’re still waiting for the NORAD Santa Tracker to obtain a lock on his location – but we expect the large man has his most excitable elf currently working on the issue, and for now, you can stick with utilizing the Google Santa Tracker.
Santa’s next stop, according to Google, will be Provideniya in Russia. The pictures it has of the region reveal a very pretty if slightly isolated little town.
As yet NORAD hasn’t updated its 2D or 3D maps – but we’re watching closely for the next update.
Folks we’re about t-minus 2 minutes from the large take-off – over on the Google Santa Tracker the map view is revealing the man of the moment preparing to leave the North Pole.
It put a lot of believed into its very detailed answer, so I won’t include it all – but its ‘Short Answer’ was as follows:
There’s about 20 minutes to go until Santa takes off, according to Google. NORAD’s countdown has already reached zero, but it still states he’s preparing, so I consider both sites agree that he’ll be leaving at about 10am GMT / 5am ET / 2am PT / 9pm AEDT.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t have a last-minute flat tire on that sleigh…
Anyway, Santa Games is a Mario-style platformer in which you control the bearded one, avoiding goblin-type creatures (I didn’t know goblins were an occupational hazard for Santa), collecting presents (good), the letters of the word Santa (good) and diamonds (confutilizing – why does Santa want diamonds?)
This one is actually pretty fun. But difficult though – it’s proper old-school in that regard.
NORAD has games in its Arcade section too. They are… how do I state this kindly… not quite as impressive as Google’s.
I just attempted the 3D Santa Run game, and it’s fairly terrifying – but why don’t you give it a go and see if you can beat my terrible high score of 600.
Either way, we have good news! Becaapply the NORAD tracking site has confirmed: “Current conditions at the North Pole indicate good weather for flying.”
And… NORAD is back. Phew!
For now, we’ll have to stick with Google – and that’s fine, becaapply there’s so much going on over there that you could spconclude months exploring that site.
Okay, so NORAD’s Santa Tracker has reached zero and inevitably… the website has stopped working properly. This seems to happen every year at the start, but it always obtains resolveed quickly. And in fairness, they do have a lot going on.
This just in: Santa is preparing for lift-off! Before he launchs his epic gift-giving voyage around the world, Santa necessarys to do his final checks. Reindeer? Check. Reins? Check. Presents?
…
He forobtained the presents. That’s what last minute checks are for!
The Music Stage on NORAD’s website includes some of my favorite Christmas songs of all time, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Here Comes Santa Claus, Winter Wonderland and Sleigh Ride.
Okay, so you don’t obtain the versions recorded by The Crystals, Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans, Darlene Love and The Ronettes respectively, but they are all available on your streaming service of choice if you want those. And you should do – it’s not Christmas without Darlene Love and The Crystals…
Want more? Well, head to the Library and you can learn all about Santa, his sleigh and his reindeer. There’s the Music Stage – where you can listen to his favorite songs – The Theater, where you can watch films about him, and a Gift Shop where you can purchase Santa merch.
Quick time check: there’s now only 23 minutes until NORAD’s Santa Tracker starts! Not long to wait now, everyone…
One of my favorites among Google’s games is Quick Draw – although I’m pretty awful at it.
How does it work? Well the robot questions you to draw something Christmassy, then tries to guess what it is. It’s like Pictionary, but with a robot rather than your family all shouting at you. The effect is much the same though, with it obtainting repeatedly annoyed at me and stateing “I don’t know what that is!”
Interestingly, the robot is called Tensor – which is the same as the machine-learning chip within Google’s Pixel phones. Coincidence? I consider not.
Whether it’s right about the takeoff time or not, Google’s Santa Tracker site really is a wonderful thing, and I particularly love the little video that plays at the start. It’s enough to obtain even the hardest-hearted Grinch into the festive spirit. But, if anyone from Google is reading this, I do have a slight issue with it – and it concerns penguins.
Look, we all know Santa lives at the North Pole. But we also know that penguins are southern-hemisphere creatures. They don’t live in the North Pole. Then again, maybe Santa has flown them out there to assist him prepare for Christmas – they do seem quite good at obtainting him ready for his flight, after all.
And… I’m back! Good morning, everyone.
The good news is that it’s now Christmas Eve nearly everywhere in the world – including in the UK, where I am.
The bad news is that I still necessary to do all of my wrapping sometime in the next 12 hours or so – let’s hope Santa is better organized, given that he obtains going in only just over an hour, according to NORAD. Google, meanwhile, states he still has a little over 2hrs until takeoff – so it’s giving him a little lie-in, maybe.
Whether Santa takes off in eight-and-a-bit hours or nine-and-a-bit, the important thing is that we’ve obtained a little while to wait, still. And that means there’s time for me to obtain some sleep before liftoff.
So, I’ll leave it there for a few hours – I’ll be back online bright and early for the large moment.
And view, we have a photo of him enjoying just that kind of feast. Okay, it’s not really a photo, obviously – it’s an image we generated utilizing Adobe Firefly. Looks pretty accurate though, right?
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