Norad Santa tracker – LIVE: Follow Santa Claus as he delivers Christmas gifts on global journey

Santa Claus is now making his cross to South America, traveling from Costa Rica to Panama.

We covered the country recently after US president-elect Donald Trump rattled diplomatic relations with the country with a threat to retake the Panama Canal.

In posts on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump accused the country of “ripping off” the US.

You can read more on the story here:

Each year on Christmas Eve, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by eight reindeer adorned with full sets of antlers.

While both female and male reindeer have antlers, the males are known to drop their huge antlers after the mating season around November.

The female reindeer drop their antlers only after giving birth in the spring.

Due to Christmas being in December, all the males would have dropped their antlers during this time meaning the ones pulling the sleigh with full sets of antlers are more likely to be an all-female crew, scientists say.

The way Santa Claus learns what to give each kid is being used by scientists to understand the concept of teleportation in quantum physics.

Santa’s journey on Christmas is one of the most arduous delivery schedules undertaken by anyone in the history of mankind.

But a physics process called quantum teleportation can come to his rescue, they say.

This phenomenon is about transferring bits of information over vast distances without physically moving the pieces of information themselves.

Scientists can use Santa Claus’ Christmas deliveries to explain the concept, according to a new study.

It works when two people hold what researchers call “entangled” bits of information.

Measuring one of these immediately affects the other, “no matter how far apart they are,” scientists say.

This could explain how Mr Claus can maintain a book of information on each child, researchers explain.

For instance, Santa can have “entangled” books whose content represents quantum information.

One of these book pairs stays in his workshop in the Arctic while the other is secretly delivered to a child’s home well before Christmas Eve.

The child can then write in their version of the book and keep it safe till Christmas.

The real “magic” happens on Christmas Eve, scientists say.

On this day, Santa checks his “Ledger of Good Nature” and teleports the book’s contents from the North Pole to the child’s book.

Then he uses a machine to check whether a certain page in both books is either blank or has text.

If a child has opened their book early, the entanglement collapses, leaving behind gibberish text, researchers say.

Well-behaved kids will have meaningful text in their secret book while naughty ones will have only “gibberish”, scientists say.

The process makes sure that each child’s wishes are personalised.

“Using the example of Santa Claus, we use an unusual context to explore the key aspects of quantum teleportation,” they write.

Scientists from the University of Manchester say Santa Claus calculated Santa’s movements and found that he delivers gifts to all children in just one magical night by travelling at close to light speed.

This means he is affected by ‘time dilation’ with his watch seeming to be ticking more slowly than our own.

Researchers say this is due to Einstein’s theory of space, time, and light, which is called special relativity.

The European Society of Cardiology has joined in on the fun, claiming that the “75-year-old” Santa Claus has been experiencing shortness of breath even on minimal exertion for the last 6 months.

“Due to obesity, he is hypercholesterolemic and diabetic on insulin,” the non-profit organisation which aims to reduce the burden of heart disease posted on X.

Norad’s Santa tracker reveals the old man has delivered a record 6 billion gifts at the time of this writing.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command’s real time tracking of Santa and his reindeer has revealed that he has delivered billions of gifts so far.

As of this writing, he’s currently near Connecticut in the US in the northern defence command’s 68th year of tracking Santa’s sleigh.

Scientists used 3D modelling to reveal Santa’s face for the first time in almost 1,700 years of his history.

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back to Christian monk Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived in modern-day Turkey sometime between 270 and 343 AD.

Saint Nicholas was described as an old man who punished children who misbehaved and rewarded well-behaved ones with gifts.

The new study, published earlier this month in the journal OrtogOnLineMag, rebuilt the Saint’s face from his skull with researchers describing it as “strong and gentle”.

“The skull has a very robust appearance, generating a strong face,” Brazilian 3D designer Cicero Moraes, who was behind the study, said.

Researchers say his thick beard was similar to how we think of Santa Claus.

The U.S. Department of Interior is joining in on the Santa fun, and has pitched a new member for the sleigh squadron.

I’m not so sure this guy will be able to fly, but I admire his enthusiam nonetheless.

After some passes through Greenland and Canada, Santa is back in warmer climes.

His sleigh just passed Puerto Rico.

He’s delivered 5,442,632,150 so far.

Personally, I’m hoping for some new pairs of socks. A cliché gift perhaps, but you can’t have too many.

Santa is passing above Greenland around the globe.

Perhaps St. Nick can settle the ongoing diplomatic tension caused by Donald Trump claiming he wants to take over the territory.