Track Santa – NORAD and Google Santa Tracker Apps Go Live for Christmas Eve by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

Merry Christmas Eve! Or the night before Christmas, however you choose to call it. The time has come again to follow Santa Claus on his journey as he brings presents to the good girls and boys around the world.

Thanks to this year’s Santa Tracker apps from Google and NORAD, you can see when he will be near your home. Here are the online tools you need.

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Now in it’s 60th year, NORAD continues its tradition of tracking Santa’s whereabouts — especially on Christmas Eve. Read more about why NORAD tracks Santa as well as the spirit of voluntarism during this event.

In addition to tracking Santa, NORAD’s Santa Tracker offers games, movies, music, and more interactive fun. See NORAD’s Santa Tracker.

Official Google Santa Tracker

For many years Google powered NORAD’s Santa Tracker, but recently the search giant decided to go rogue and launch its own tracker.

How does one choose between the traditional Santa Tracker by NORAD, and the relatively new version offered by Google? Let’s take a look at what Google’s tracker has to offer.

In addition to games and videos, Google’s Santa Tracker can even teach you a bit of basic coding. Every day leading up to December 24 has opened up new games and other interactive features within Santa’s Village.

There’s a whole month’s worth of interactive content available now, plus the Santa Tracker itself. See Google’s Santa Tracker.

The History of Santa Tracking

For those wondering how this whole phenomenon of tracking Santa all begin, the SEJ team has done its research. Here is a brief history.

In 1955, a mistake lead to the Sears department store publishing the number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as the number people could use to contact Santa.

Instead of dismissing the calls, staff were instructed to give Santa’s “current location” to anyone that called. When the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958, the tradition remained.

If you’re a more visual person, here is the history illustrated as an infographic:

Source: Norad Santa Tracker : The History of NORAD, Google & Santa [Infographic]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the SEJ Team! 

 

Featured Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock.com
Screenshots taken on 23/12/2015 by Author

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Track Santa, And Learn How to Code, With Google’s Latest Santa Tracking App by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

NORAD’s original Santa Tracker went live today and, though it’s innovative in its own right, it’s lacking many of the interactive features of Google’s Santa Tracker launched earlier this month.

In addition to games and videos, Google’s 11^th annual Santa Tracker can even teach you a bit of basic coding. Though the tracker itself doesn’t go live until Christmas Eve, every day leading up to December 24 will open up new games and other interactive features within Santa’s Village.

The fun and entertainment offered by Google’s Santa Tracker is balanced with a comparable amount of educational content. Several games have been released so far designed to teach people how to code. As someone with little coding experience, I can say the games are actually quite helpful for beginners.

Google’s Santa Tracker is also designed to teach users more about worldwide Christmas traditions and highlight a number of charitable organizations that the company supports.

Most of the content has been unlocked so far, but with nine days until Christmas Eve there is still plenty of content left to discover. New content is unlocked every morning, and can be accessed either through your browser or by downloading the app.

The app is only available on Android, but everyone else can easily access it through a mobile browser.

Featured Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock.com

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