Christmas Eve is finally here and Santa is already on his way.
It will be a while yet before St Nick visits all of the good children in Ireland but he is already leaving presents for children elsewhere.
He and his reindeer left the North Pole at around 11am Irish time and headed to Russia where Santa began his annual trip around the globe.
The reindeer are working hard to keep on track and by 8:30pm Santa had already delivered over 3.2 billion presents.
Santa has already completed a number of stops and is currently on route to Port-Gentil, Gabon to empty his sleigh further.
Ireland will be one of his final stops of the night before he takes on America and Canada as well as South America.
Children in Ireland will want to make sure they are in bed very early as Santa, who usually arrives in Ireland at around midnight, may be earlier than usual thanks to some strong wind helping him — and his reindeer — along their way.
Santa is said to be very excited to visit all of the children here as so many of them have been extremely good this year.
The elves have been working hard all year because there are so many good children to make toys for.
The man in red sent word ahead of Christmas Eve to let children know that no matter where they are tonight, he will know where to find them.
He will visit all sorts of places tonight — houses, apartments, hotels, hospitals, accommodation centres, and many, many others.
It is a very long night’s work for Santa and the reindeer so they always appreciate it when children leave out food, drink or a ‘thank you’ note before they head to bed.
For the 68th year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) is tracking Santa’s journey from beginning to end.
You can watch his progress below (if you cannot see the embed, you can follow his progress here).
Norad have been taking on the special mission of tracking Santa since 1955 when a young child, trying to reach St Nick, dialed a misprinted phone number from an ad for a store in the local newspaper.
When they called, it was not Santa but US Air Force Col. Harry Shoup who answered. Col. Shoup quickly realised that a mistake was made and assured the child that they had reached Santa.
More calls came through from children looking to speak to Santa and so an officer was assigned to answer the childrens’ calls.
And so a tradition was born.
Every year, Norad reports Santa’s location on Christmas Eve to millions of families across the world who watch eagerly as Santa nears their home.
Article Originally Posted on Irish Examiner