Where Is Santa Right Now? Live Santa Tracker for Canada

Where is Santa right now? Our live Santa tracker shows you on a world map. On Christmas Eve you can watch which country the sleigh is flying over, where it goes next and how many kilometres Santa has covered. Before then, a countdown ticks down to takeoff.

Santa's trip starts over the Pacific in the early morning of December 24, Eastern time. He reaches Newfoundland at 10 PM Newfoundland time, Toronto and Montréal at 10 PM Eastern, and Vancouver at 10 PM Pacific, right in the window when NORAD says he makes his stops: between 9 PM and midnight, once children are asleep.¹

Below the tracker you'll find the full route with Eastern and Pacific times, the story of the famous NORAD Santa tracker and the Canadian role in it, its phone number, and a little math on how fast Santa would have to fly.

Live Santa tracker: here is Santa now

Santa tracker

At the North Pole

Santa is getting ready at the North Pole. On Christmas Eve he starts over the Pacific.

1. Kiribati (Christmas Island)3:00 AM ET / 12:00 AM PT
2. New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa4:00 AM ET / 1:00 AM PT
3. Sydney and Melbourne6:00 AM ET / 3:00 AM PT
4. Guam7:00 AM ET / 4:00 AM PT
5. Japan and Korea8:00 AM ET / 5:00 AM PT
6. China, the Philippines and Perth9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT
7. Thailand and Vietnam10:00 AM ET / 7:00 AM PT
8. India11:30 AM ET / 8:30 AM PT
9. Dubai1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT
10. Moscow, Turkey and Kenya2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
11. Finland, Greece and South Africa3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT
12. Germany, France and Italy4:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM PT
13. London, Portugal and Iceland5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT
14. Brazil and Argentina8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT
15. St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT
16. Halifax, Atlantic Canada and Puerto Rico9:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM PT
17. Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa and New York10:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM PT
18. Winnipeg, Regina and Chicago11:00 PM ET / 8:00 PM PT
19. Calgary, Edmonton and Denver12:00 AM** ET / 9:00 PM PT
20. Vancouver, Victoria and Los Angeles1:00 AM** ET / 10:00 PM PT
21. Anchorage, Alaska2:00 AM** ET / 11:00 PM PT
22. Hawaii3:00 AM** ET / 12:00 AM** PT
23. American Samoa4:00 AM** ET / 1:00 AM** PT

The tracker runs right in your browser, no app needed. Can't wait for Christmas Eve? Tap "Play the flight as a preview" to watch the whole trip in one minute. On the night itself, leave it open on the TV or a tablet by the tree so the kids can see when Santa gets close.

When does Santa reach Canada?

Santa flies from east to west with the night, so he reaches every place at about the same local time. Canada has six time zones, from Newfoundland (UTC-3:30) to Pacific (UTC-8), so the same 10 PM arrives in a relay across the country. Here are the key stops in Eastern and Pacific time:

He starts in Kiribati because Christmas Eve begins there first: the islands sit in the UTC+14 time zone, 19 hours ahead of Toronto. Newfoundland and Labrador is his first Canadian stop. Because it is 1.5 hours ahead of Eastern time, St. John's gets Santa at 8:30 PM Eastern, while Vancouver kids see him four hours after Halifax kids do (it is 9 PM Eastern in Halifax and 1 AM Eastern, December 25, in Vancouver). Saskatchewan does not change its clocks, so Regina stays on Central time all winter, the same as Winnipeg.

What time does Santa come to my house?

NORAD's answer is honest: only Santa knows his exact route, but "it appears he arrives only when children are asleep." According to NORAD, he typically makes his stops between 9 PM and midnight.¹ So yes, bedtime really does matter on December 24, whether you live in Corner Brook or Kamloops.

The NORAD Santa tracker and Canada's part in it

In December 1955, a Sears ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper told kids to call Santa. The number was misprinted. It rang on a red phone at the Continental Air Defense Command, and Col. Harry Shoup picked up.²

A small voice asked, "Is this Santa Claus?" Shoup, a strict officer, thought it was a joke at first. Then he played along and had his staff tell kids where Santa was on the radar. He became known as the "Santa Colonel."² When NORAD was formed in 1958, it took over the tradition.⁴

Today it is a huge operation. In 2025 more than 1,000 Canadian and American service members, Defense Department civilians and local volunteers answered calls at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado.³ On Christmas Eve 2024 they logged 380,000 calls.¹

Canadian NORAD Region and the CF-18 escort

Canada has its own NORAD arm. According to National Defence, the Canadian NORAD Region monitors and escorts Santa through Canadian airspace on December 24, and Canadian CF-18s are among the fighter jets that have flown with him, next to American F-15s, F-16s and F-22s.⁵ National Defence also says NORAD has tracked Santa since 1955 and that fighter jets have escorted him every year since.⁵ A video is scheduled when Santa enters Canadian airspace.⁵

NORAD Santa tracker phone number and how to follow along

Kids can call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) and talk to a real person about Santa's location.³ In 2025 the lines were open from 4 AM to midnight Mountain Time on December 24, which is 6 AM to 2 AM Eastern or 3 AM to 11 PM Pacific.¹ You can also follow along on noradsanta.org, which in 2024 launched on December 1 with a countdown, games and "Santa's North Pole Village."⁶ It comes in nine languages.¹ NORAD also posts updates on social media and through Amazon Alexa, SiriusXM and OnStar.³

NORAD vs. Google Santa Tracker

Google started its own Santa tracker in 2004, when about 25,000 people followed it. It formally partnered with NORAD in 2007, and the two split in 2012.⁷ That same year, NORAD's site counted 22.3 million unique visitors in December.⁷

How fast would Santa have to fly?

Spy magazine did the math in 1990, tongue firmly in cheek. With about 31 hours of Christmas thanks to the time zones, Santa would need 822.6 visits per second. His sleigh would move at 650 miles per second (roughly 1,050 km per second), about 3,000 times the speed of sound.⁸

Kids who ask how that's possible may also be asking a bigger question. Our article Is Santa real? helps with that talk. To find out who pulls that sleigh, see Santa's reindeer names, and to send a letter before he leaves, read Santa Claus's address.

Santa tracker: frequently asked questions

Where is Santa right now?

On Christmas Eve, the live tracker on this page shows which country Santa is flying over right now and where he goes next. Before Christmas Eve, a countdown runs until takeoff, and Santa is still at the North Pole with the elves.

What time does Santa come to Canada?

On our tracker, Santa reaches each Canadian time zone around 10 PM local time on December 24: first Newfoundland, then the Atlantic provinces, then Ontario and Quebec, and finally British Columbia. That fits NORAD, which says he typically makes his stops between 9 PM and midnight, once the kids are asleep.

Do Canadian jets really escort Santa?

According to the Canadian NORAD Region, it monitors and escorts Santa through Canadian airspace on December 24. National Defence lists Canadian CF-18s among the jets that have joined him over the years, together with American F-15s, F-16s and F-22s.

What is the NORAD Santa tracker phone number?

1-877-HI-NORAD, which is 1-877-446-6723. On Christmas Eve, volunteers answer and tell kids where Santa is. In 2025 the lines were open from 4 AM to midnight Mountain Time, which is 6 AM to 2 AM Eastern and 3 AM to 11 PM Pacific.

Where does Santa start his trip?

In Kiribati in the Pacific, where Christmas Eve begins first because the islands sit at UTC+14. In Toronto it is still the early morning of December 24 then. By the time-zone logic of our tracker, Newfoundland is the first Canadian stop.

How did the NORAD Santa tracker start?

With a typo. In 1955 a Sears ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper printed the wrong phone number, and kids reached Col. Harry Shoup at the air defense command. He played along, and the tradition was born.

Is there a different tracker for Quebec and French-speaking families?

Our tracker is in English. Quebec families know Santa as le Père Noël, and the same flight times apply: he reaches Montréal and Québec City around 10 PM Eastern.

Sources

1. 1CBS News Sacramento: Santa tracker 2025, where is Santa right now? (cbsnews.com)
2. 2NPR: NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport (2014) (npr.org)
3. 3Stars and Stripes: NORAD Santa tracker on Christmas Eve (2025) (stripes.com)
4. 4ABC7 News: How the NORAD Santa tracker began (abc7news.com)
5. 5National Defence (Canada): Canadian NORAD Region ready to escort Santa once again (2022) (canada.ca)
6. 6WTOP / CBS News: NORAD prepares for another year of tracking Santa (2024) (wtop.com)
7. 7MarTech: Google's Santa tracking tradition and NORAD (2014) (martech.org)
8. 8Spy Magazine, January 1990: Is there a Santa Claus? (transcript) (stanford.edu)