pAustralia, Japan, Taiwan… Santa Claus' journey began on Sunday under the strict surveillance of the American army, which has tracked the movements of the man in red every December 24th for decades.
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According to the US and Canadian Aviation Security Command (NORAD), his sled flew over Jakarta from its base at the North Pole at 3:38 p.m. GMT.
Even faster than the US Air Force's F-15, “it will slow down so we can escort it,” assures NORAD.
At around 10:54 p.m. local time, Santa Claus began handing out presents with his sleigh and reindeer in Quebec.
This tracking, made possible by sensors in the red nose of Rudolph, one of the nine reindeer pulling the sleigh, according to NORAD, is an institution in the United States.
It all started with a typo in a 1955 Sears department store ad encouraging people to call Santa Claus in a local Colorado newspaper.
Supposedly it was the famous bearded man's direct line, but in fact the number given was the number of the red telephone NORAD – in the middle of the Cold War.
The officer on duty that day, Colonel Harry Shoup, was initially unsettled when he found himself in line with a little boy asking him if he was really “Santa Claus,” and got caught up in the game.
He directed his men to spread information about Santa's whereabouts and even called a local radio station to report that he had seen a strange object in the sky.
68 years later, NORAD is still carrying on the tradition.
This year too, US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden have been closely monitoring the movements of the man in red.
“This evening, the President and First Lady participated in follow-up calls with North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa Claus with children and families across the country,” the White House said in a statement.
After crossing the Asia-Pacific region, Santa's sleigh flew over Israel, the southern Gaza Strip, Africa and Palmer Station, a U.S. research base in Antarctica.
It then traveled through South America before reaching the United States, delivering around 100,000 gifts per second, or a total of 4.9 billion gifts, as of 1:30 a.m. GMT on Monday, according to NORAD.