Once a year, Father Christmas loads up his sleigh and takes to the skies for an epic night of gift deliverance and joy spreading. He’s probably gearing up for the big night right now! When he finally blasts off from the North Pole on 24th December, you’ll be able to track his progress right on your Nokia Lumia, using the NORAD Tracks Santa app.

However, as we all know, he doesn’t come if you stay awake and wait for him. So, only use this to make sure that he’s making good progress, don’t watch it for the entire duration of the night or he won’t come.

The story of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) tracking Santa Claus is an interesting one. They initially started tracking Santa back in 1955 when a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa.

That misprinted telephone number put kids through to CONAD (the predecessor of NORAD). Colonel Harry Shoup (Director of Operations at the time) asked his staff to check the radar for signs of Santa flying from the North Pole. It’s been a tradition ever since, providing up-to-date information on Santa’s progress.

Rather than phoning the phone number, these days you can look it up on the Internet or the NORAD Tracks Santa app on your Nokia Lumia.

Currently, the welcome screen of the app displays a counter that tracks down the time that you can start to track Santa. When the time comes, that counter will transform into a live map.

As Santa makes his way around the globe, you’ll see exactly where he is on the map. As he stops off in different parts of the world he’ll be leaving gifts under people’s Christmas trees as he goes. All of which, will be shown on the live map.

The snow globe underneath the map will also let you know where he is, in addition to where he’s heading next. If you see your town appear on the list, close your eyes and go to sleep; when you wake, it’ll be Christmas morning and time to spend the day with your family, opening gifts, playing with toys and enjoying highly valuable family time.

There’s also a counter that shows the number of presents Santa has delivered. By the end of the night, he’d have delivered a staggering amount, so make sure you leave him a glass of milk and a mince pie for his hard work.

Download NORAD Tracks Santa on your Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 920 or Nokia Lumia 820 – it’s free.

Image credit: Rennes.i