How to track Santa around the world as he officially takes off for Christmas

Father Christmas has officially kicked off his extensive journey across the globe to deliver exciting gifts to all the boys and girls that secured themselves a position on his 'nice' list.

And while us Brits await the big guy's imminent arrival to the UK tonight, he's already ticked off several places, including the Pacific Islands, which is about 12 hours ahead.

It turns out that you can actually track Santa Clause's movement as he makes his way around the world!

Volunteers for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) are a corporation that pride themselves on being able track Santa's sleigh as it flies around.

They've even got a counter for the number of presents he's delivered.

NORAD began to keep an eye on St Nicholas' whereabouts back in 1955, making this the 68th time they've followed his progress around the world.

The movement first began when a child accidentally called up NORAD (later called CONAD) after seeing a newspaper advert for kids to call Santa Claus.

Boss of NORAD, Colonel Harry Shoup, later instructed his staff to check their radar for signs of Santa's sleigh after he'd set off from the North Pole, initiating the festive tradition.

NORAD

Instead of continuing to use radar, the company now tracks the sleigh by satellite, but NORAD still has a hotline you can call to ask exactly where in the world he is right now.

At time of writing (about 14:19 UK time) Santa is doing the rounds over Japan.

He's just ticked off Japan and South Korea, and is currently heading towards Shanghai in China.

Luckily, Father Christmas doesn't look to have crashed once throughout history, so he isn't likely to meet with disaster now.

NORAD is also able to detail the specifications of the big red man's sleigh, with it believed to be 75 candy canes long, 40 wide and 55 high.

Getty/Per Breiehagan

The vehicle is estimated to weigh 75,000 gumdrops at the start of the delivery run, but has packed on an extra 5,000 by the end of it after picking up some ice and snow.

The gifts themselves weigh an average 60,000 tons, while Santa himself has an official weight of 260lbs.

It's believed, however, that by the time he's home and has tried all the food that's left out for him his weight has increased by 1,000lbs.

NORAD also has intelligence that Santa is a man of about 5'7, and that he seems to experience time differently to the rest of us.

In addition, the company claims that since he knows when you're awake, if you're still awake while he's travelling through your ends, your area he'll go to another house and wait until you're asleep before delivering your gifts.