It's December 1st, which means you can finally break into that advent calendar and start the countdown to Christmas. Today Google and NORAD have kicked off their official countdown, which allows one and all to follow Santa online as he embarks on his annual trip from the North Pole to your chimney (an annual tradition). more ›

Christmas eve is always a very busy day for Santa Claus; when he's finished busting up Sicilian crime syndicates, he's got to get riding cross the gilded skies on his red sleigh, delivering FedEx packages to doormen the world over. But no need to fear the homeless-looking-man-in-the-sky: as they do every year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is keeping close track of his movements, using their Official NORAD Santa Tracker. more ›

'Tis the time of year when NORAD, the "bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada," turns its attention to tracking a certain visitor from the North Pole. The NORAD Tracks Santa website features a map showing where Santa has gone and NORAD also has an explanation of how Santa can work the way he does:

The fact that Santa Claus is more than 16 centuries old, yet does not appear to age, is our biggest clue that he does not work within time as we know it. His Christmas Eve trip may seem to take around 24 hours, but to Santa it may last days, weeks or even months in standard time. Santa would not want to rush the important job of distributing presents to children and spreading Christmas happiness everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa functions within a different time-space continuum than the rest of us do.