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I’m not sure about you, but when I was younger, I was always curious as to how Santa Claus could actually get around the world.  It blew my mind that he could possibly circle the globe in a single day.  Where he was at any given time would have kept me quite entertained as a child.  Heck, it still might now.  Apparently, I’m not the only one who would find that interesting, as that’s exactly what NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) has been doing for the past 50 years.

This year, NORAD has teamed up with Verizon to help children track Santa’s movements.  It can be done either online or by calling 1-877-HI-NORAD.  It starts at 3pm Mountain Time, which is a bit late for those who want to see Santa go all the way from New Zealand or Tokyo to Hawaii, but I doubt too many kids will be thinking about that.  Although, if you want to track Santa with NORAD, you can even follow along with Santa’s flight path in 3D with Google Earth, or with any mobile device with Google Maps.  For Google Earth, you need to download a file, but for Maps, just searching “norad santa” will give your Santa’s current location.

The idea seems fairly silly at first (at least those without kids like myself), but it actually is an interesting feature.  The inner kid in me might be tracking Santa’s path whenever I get the chance to on Christmas Eve.  I know of a few little kids in my family that I might show this to as well, as I’m sure they’ll love to see where Santa is, and give them a sense of just how close to them he is.  Hey, if nothing else, it could be a great way to get the kids to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, just show them how close Santa is at the moment, and warn them that they need to be asleep before he comes.  They might not go to sleep, but they might agree to go to their rooms at least.

Read [PR Newswire]