It’s Christmas Eve in America but Santa’s journey has already begun across the globe.
Guided by his nine reindeer, Santa was heading toward Iwo Jima, Japan just before 9 a.m. – and had already delivered more than 1 billion gifts.
The jolly old soul can be tracked online by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google’s Santa Tracker.
NORAD has been tracking Santa’s sleigh ride for more than 65 years. Google began about 20 years ago.
NORAD’s operations include many volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs manning the phones, taking calls from kids asking for Santa’s location.
The helpful elves ran into some technical glitches early Sunday but not before they tracked Santa in New Zealand, Figi and at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Operations were back up and running by 9 a.m., when the sleigh was spotted near Hiroshima, Japan.
Over at Google, spies spotted Santa near Pyongyang, North Korea, on his way to Japan.
To track Santa by phone, call 877-Hi-NORAD.
