Santa’s journey, monitored in real time by the US military. The first children who received gifts

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Santa Claus took his flight from the North Pole. He left on Tuesday, December 24, on his journey around the world to distribute gifts to all children. Santa’s journey is being monitored in real time by the US military, reports AFP.

The sleigh of the most awaited Santa in the world, pulled by nine brave reindeer, flew over the Great Wall of China at 14:33 GMT (16:33 Romanian time), according to the military command responsible for air security in the United States and Canada (Norad).

More than 1.8 billion gifts had already been distributed to sleeping children at the time of this news, at a rate of 100,000 per second.

Gregory Guillot, general of the US Air Force, warned that “Santa Claus will not stop if the children are awake”.

“So my message is this: go to bed before 9:00 p.m. to receive gifts,” the Norad commander advised on Fox News.

Santa’s journey can be followed in real time – and in 3D – on the dedicated website, noradsanta.org. By 16.00 GMT, he had already brought gifts to children from New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China.

Norad has been monitoring Santa’s route for decades. It all started with a typo in 1955 in a Sears ad asking a local newspaper in Colorado to call Santa Claus.

Supposed to be the direct line to the famous legendary character, the number indicated was actually that of Norad’s red phone, in full Cold War.

Initially taken by surprise when he found himself on the phone with a little boy asking him if he really was “Santa,” the officer on duty for the day, Colonel Harry Shoup, stepped in.

He instructed his underlings to spread the word about Santa’s whereabouts and even called a local radio station to announce that he had seen a strange object in the sky.

Sixty-nine years later, Norad continues to carry the tradition forward.

Since politics and the spirit of Christmas generally make a good home, the Air Force general wanted to reassure the population marked by drone overflights that recently sowed panic on the US East Coast. “I don’t anticipate any difficulty with these drones for Santa this year,” said Gregory Guillot.