Tracking Santa's journey on your favorite Apple device
Photo Credit: TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images
About now, the kids are probably bouncing off the walls in anticipation of the overnight visit by a bearded guy in a red suit -- AKA Santa Claus. Fortunately, there are a handful of free apps you can install and websites to visit so that the kids won't be asking you "When is Santa coming? Where is he now?" every 2.3 seconds. Let's take a look!
This is the official app of the NORAD Tracks Santa program, which has been going on forever ... or at least since I was a kid and I'm almost as old as Old Saint Nick. The days and hours count down to Santa's flight (he's probably started by now...), your kids can see where that hypersonic reindeer-powered sleigh currently is, play a fun game called "Thin Ice" to help Santa's elves deliver presents, and also find out all about the North American Air Defense Command (AKA NORAD).
NORAD Tracks Santa Official Website
Should you decide that you'd rather not have little hands, sticky from eating too many candy canes, messing up your new iPhone 6 Plus, send the kids over to their own computer and they can visit NORADsanta.org. That site is also official, and powered by Microsoft BING. Please note that it crashed Safari the first time I loaded it, so Satya Nadella may be playing the Grinch this year. Santa was landing in Novosibirsk, Russia when I took the screenshot you see above.
The site runs on iOS, although you'll probably want to set it up for a 2D view rather than 3D.
Hmmm, that's strange. NORADsanta.org shows that the jolly old elf is in Kazakhstan, while Google is now showing him in Noril'sk, Russia. I call shenanigans!
The Google site is actually a lot more fun than the official NORAD site, featuring an animated Santa delivering gifts at each stop, fake "text messages", and of course the distance to your home. And this site runs much faster on iOS devices than the Bing-ish one.
Don't Ask Siri...
Sorry to say, but Apple apparently isn't in the holiday mood this year. Asking Siri where Santa was resulted in this:
while asking for the exact location of Santa Claus brought up a map showing Santa Claus, Indiana (yes, it's a real place.) Bah humbug!
Social Networks
NORAD Santa is on Twitter and Facebook, too! That makes it quite easy for you to trick the kids into staring at your Twitter feed for hours waiting for the updates, while you hit the eggnog.
