Norad Santa tracker live: Follow Santa Claus and his reindeer as they begin their journey around the globe

Santa Claus and his reindeer have begun their journey around the globe.

They are set to make billions of stops over the next 24 hours.

Santa Claus and his reindeer are set to begin their journey in less than half an hour at the International Date Line.

According to Norad, he will take in Zhangye in China before then setting off to the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.

There is just one hour to go before Santa Claus takes to the skies to begin his journey around the world.

Norad has begun its one-hour countdown, with Santa’s elves seen busily doing last-minute preparations accompanied by Santa-focused Christmas music.

There’s nothing more exciting on Christmas Eve than being able to see exactly where Santa Claus and his reindeer are on their one-night journey as he delivers presents across the globe.

For decades, children have been able to track the location of the red-suited man by checking in with the North American Aerospace Defence Command, also known as NORAD.

The tradition began in 1955, when a child mistakenly rang a Colorado military command asking to speak to Father Christmas after a local newspaper ran an advert by a department store containing a misprinted phone number.

My colleague Brittany Miller explains how to track Santa’s journey this Christmas Eve:

Santa Claus braved the sticky heat of the Amazon rainforest this weekend, taking two boats to bring gifts to the children of a small village near the Brazilian city of Manaus.

The visit was arranged by Amigos do Papai Noel, a Brazilian charity that has been taking gifts to children in the Amazon rainforest for the past 26 years.

“For the children of the rivers, the people of the countryside, nothing new happens,” said Raimunda Ferrera Vieira a community leader in the village of Catalao, which received Santa on Saturday. “This here for us was a gift from God.”

More than 600 children from different villages gathered in Catalao to receive presents from Santa, who dressed in his traditional nightcap, white gloves and red suit, while enduring the stifling jungle heat.

The tradition began in 1955, when a child mistakenly rang a Colorado military command asking to speak to Father Christmas – after a local newspaper ran an advert by a department store containing a misprinted phone number.

Air Force Commander Harry Shoup, who was manning the phones that Christmas Eve, quickly realised the mistake and assured the child that he was in fact Santa Claus.

As more calls came in that night, Commander Shoup assigned a duty officer to continue answering the phone, birthing a tradition that passed over to Norad when it was formed in 1958.

Every year since, the agency — which defends and monitors the skies over North America — has fielded children’s questions about the red-and-white-clad chimney intruder and his unrivaled delivery schedule.

According to Norad, the “only logical conclusion” as to how Santa is able to traverse the globe in one night is that he “somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.”

“NORAD intelligence reports indicate that Santa does not experience time the way we do. His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa, it might last days, weeks, or even months,” the agency stated.

Santa usually starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west.

So, historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he shoots up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.

“Keep in mind, Santa’s route can be affected by weather, so it’s really unpredictable,” Norad states on its website.