There is one day a year that NORAD let’s its hair down so to speak to provide an important service to the citizens of the world. On December 24th, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) uses all the tools at its disposal to track the progress of Santa Claus and his reindeer!NORAD will once again be teaming up with Google to allow users to watch Santa as he travels around the globe, all in 3D thanks to the Google Earth service. Guided by Rudolph’s famous red nose, Google Earth will have Santa’s location on lock and will offer a visual play-by-play as St. Nick flies over various landmarks around the world. The jolly elf’s progress will also be available on Google Maps in both its mobile and desktop forms so no one has to miss any of the action if they are travelling.Acting as a strong piece of evidence for the existence of Santa, the NORAD and Google tracking partnership has become a Christmas tradition for families, and can warm the heart of even the most grinchy of non-believers. Starting at the international date line and traveling West because of the different time zones, Santa gets going promptly at midnight, and zooms to all the homes in the world by 6am (local to each child’s house of course).All the fun starts at 2am EST on the 24th, as Santa begins his journey around the world to bring happiness to all! Make sure to mark your calendars! You can check out the archive of last years tracking below.Read more at Google’s Lat Long blog