Santa tracker 2025 live – where is Santa right now and how to track him with NORAD and Google
The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived: it’s time for TechRadar’s annual Santa Tracker!
We will monitor St. Nick’s whereabouts as he delivers all the best tech gifts for christmasusing the two most popular trackers; NORAD and Google.
Every year, millions of people watch Kris Kringle’s annual gift-giving globetrot. It’s practically a sporting event, with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google using Santa Trackers to track its every move.
What is a Santa tracker?
Stalking Santa is a much-loved and increasingly observed tradition around the world, but it all started with a happy accident in 1955, making it the 70th anniversary of the silliness of Stalking Santa. According to NORAD, a Sears catalog accidentally printed the telephone number for the Continental Air Defense (CONAD) Command Center in Colorado Springs instead of a Santa Claus hotline and began receiving calls from children hoping to speak to Klaus himself.
Seeing an opportunity for a little festive fun (and positive PR), CONAD began issuing annual press releases about Santa’s whereabouts, handing the reins over to NORAD after its founding in 1958. In 2004, Google released its own Santa Tracker, which offers a very different but still fun experience.
Fast forward to today and there are several ways to find out what happens to Santa, but these two are the main ones to watch out for, in our expert opinion.
What is the best Santa tracker? NORAD vs. Google
A unique and, some would say, still the best way to track Santa, this website is actually run by the US military. It merges gruff colonels presenting a video about Santa Claus with live, up-to-the-minute information on the whereabouts of the man in the big red suit.
You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store, and from there you will be presented with a few mini-games and you can follow the progress of the gift delivery live.
It’s pretty basic compared to other trackers, lacking a lot of polish and website design. However, it’s also the most popular and has a heartwarming story behind it – plus an army of volunteers ready to answer your call to find out where Santa is and the power of Verizon’s network in a partnership that has now lasted 23 years.
NORAD has also added an AI chatbot called Radar to help you spot Santa, but if you prefer to use the phone, dialing +1 (877) HI-NORAD will also do the trick.
A more recent addition to the Santa tracking mix, Google’s Santa Tracker has been around since 2004, combining the power of Google Maps with the savvy knowledge of Santa’s whereabouts.
How to play Santa games on mobile
Every year when we publish this guide, people ask how to play games on mobile, the big “PLAY!” » The button in the middle of the screen sometimes fails and will only give you random games or videos anyway. Well, just go to the Santa Tracker site on a mobile browser, click on the three lines in the upper left corner and see all the games to play. (Note: The “Install” option, which asks you to “Add to Home Screen,” does not work on iPhones).
While Google doesn’t have the same satellite tracking power as NORAD, one has to assume the search giant has a deal with the North Pole to figure out where it is in real time using searches, radar, lasers and… other things. Don’t ask us to interpret magic.
The Santa Tracker comes with a host of mini-games, as well as a month-long website encouraging kids to learn to code while experiencing a winter wonderland.
There are a few pro-Google tool moments in this Santa Tracker – the Quick Draw game is designed to teach Google’s image recognition software to improve, which seems a bit odd – but it’s a wonderfully designed site and arguably the most visually accessible way to track Santa.
You can download the app from the Google Play Store, but in our eyes the mobile site is just as good and more accessible for iPhone users, and Google’s Santa Tracker also offers the best and easiest-to-use desktop experience.
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