Santa tracker 2024 RECAP: Father Christmas delivers more than 8 BILLION presents to kids around the world with the Norad map

Well it's been a gruelling day but it's come to an end.

Santa has finished delivering presents for Christmas 2024 with a grand total of 8,186,671,107 dropped off on all corners of the globe.

As Santa's journey comes to an end, so does ours as we end our live coverage here.

Thanks so much for joining and we hope you have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are.

And for Santa...enjoy your rest!

He's on the home straight!

Santa is now 15 minutes away from the North Pole where no doubt he'll enjoy some downtime after an incredibly busy day delivering gifts across the world.

Father Christmas has now passed the eight billion mark in presents delivered across the globe as he approaches the end of his whistlestop world tour.

He's left Hawaii and is now making his way to Midway Atoll, an island group in the North Pacific Ocean.

Father Christmas has now left Alaska and is heading to Hawaii...lucky for some eh.

He'll surely be dreaming of putting his feet up after delivering an estimated 7.8 billion presents so far.

Morning all and Merry Christmas!

Father Christmas is nearing the end of his journey and is now dropping off gifts in Alaska before he heads back to the North Pole for a well deserved rest.

According to the NORAD tracker, Santa was last seen in Anchorage is now heading to Nome.

Santa was spotted minutes ago in North Dakota and is now on track to arrive in South Dakota any moment, after briefly leaving the US.

Santa has finished his deliveries in the United States and is en route to Ecuador as Christmas rapidly approaches.

Santa Claus is in the United States!

He was last spotted in Maryland and is now en route to Pennsylvania, with just 90 minutes until it is officially Christmas (EST).

Santa has just stopped in Venezuela and is now en route to the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.

Santa was recently seen arriving in Nunavut, Canada, followed by the Inuit inlet of Clyde River.

He is now en route to Greenland.

Santa was spotted over Brazil where he was dropping presents to the boys and girls on his nice list as he headed across the Atlantic Ocean.

He continued to head south over the large South American country as he spread his joy across the globe.

Santa enjoyed the penguins so much he is now heading to Antarctica to Palmer Station on Anvers Island off the Antartic peninsula.

Normally Father Christmas prefers the reindeer and polar bears of the North Pole, but he does enjoy seeing how the others live at the opposite side of the world

Santa is now on his way to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.The small Islands in the Antarctic Ocean are technically part of the UK.

The islands are practically uninhabited, with a very small population living on South Georgia but are home to thousands of penguins and sea birds

Santa is now making his final few stops before he prrpares to cross the Atlantic and starts giving presents to North and South America.

Santa is now flying over the mountainous island country of Iceland

Iceland doesn't have Santa Claus, but instead has 13 Yule Lads, or Jólasveinar, who are the Icelandic version of Santa Claus.

Santa has arrived in Ireland, where each year he is granted permission to enter the country's airspace by the Taoiseach.

The news - an annual tradition - will come as a relief for families across the country and perhaps act as a spur for children currently on the naughty list to try to make last-minute amends.

This is not a drill! Santa Claus is here in the UK! delivering presents across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Get the cookies out, the carrots ready and lclear the chimney!

Santa has made it to the capital, rudolf's hoofes trotting over the skies above Big Ben as he takes a trip down the Thames.

He has already delivered over four billion presents, but now he is delivering to the 68 million people of the UK

Santa is getting closer to the UK and has enjoyed some good conditions on his trip.

He made it close to the UK but has still not made his visit just yet

The Met Office has said it is 'ideal flying conditions' for Santa as he flew over South Africa earlier this evening

Father Christmas has just flown over Timbuktu after completeing a section over the Sahara Desert.

We hope those reindeer had their shades on!

After touring most of Europe, Santa has popped back to Africa to visit more stops in Algeria, Morocco and western Africa.

He is currently on his way to Ain Salah in Algeria

Santa is currently flying over spain as he continues his whistle-stop tour of Europe.

In Spain, well-behaved children are visited by not one, but three men. These men are known as Los Reyes Magos, or the three wise men.

Let's give Santa a round of applause. He has now delivered four million presents tonight!

What an achievement

Weihnachtsmann, as he is known in Germany, has set off for munich, before a switch over to Switzerland.

Traditionally Santa does not drop down chimneys in Germany.

Instead, the Christkind or Christkindl, an angel-like creature with blond hair and wings, brings gifts to families on the eve of Christmas.

Santa has now visited most of eastern europe, stopping off in Germany, Poland.

He has now stopped off in Sweden, where Santa is seen traditionally as a dwarf-like creature.

With each country ticked off the list, and indeed checked twice, he edges ever closer to the UK. He will be here soon!

He may be hungry for some milk and cookies, but now Santa has reached Budapest in the country of Hungary.

Howver in Hungary, children get presents from Santa on 6th December, which is St Nicholas Day. So we is probably just passing by this evening.

The man in the jolly red hat has taken a quick stop off at one of the smallest countries in Europe.

It was a short stop off at the country which is just 61 square kilometres, smaller than most UK cities.

Santa has now taken a trip across the Med into europe, stopping in Malta before he heads towards Rome in Italy

Santa has been seen over the skies of Libya, Algeria and Chad in the last few minutes, as helooks to complete deliveries of presents to the continent of more than one million people!

According to NORAD, Santa is able to travel the glove as he 'somehow functions within his own time-space continuum'.

The agency said: 'Santa does not experience time the way we do. His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa, it might last days, weeks, or even months.'

The present count is in as Santa continues travelling land and sea to deliver gifts.

According to reports, he has delivered more than 2.5 billion presents so far.

Santa Claus has now reached Karachi in Pakistan on his voyage across the world.

It is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world, but the big man still has a huge amount of people to deliver presents for.

Flying conditions are forecast to be good for Santa across the globe after he left the North Pole at 9am.

He has already reached Thailand and Cambodia as he makes his way across Asia.

Santa has touched down in India for the first time on his long-haul journey.

With a population of just under 1.5 billion, there are a lot of presents to hand out!

Santa is nearing the continent of Europe, having just touched down in Kazakhstan.

Very nice!

While Santa is on his own for most of the journey he is joined by a military escort while flying over some parts of the world.

Santa has officially delivered 1.8 billion presents - that's just less than a quarter of the world left to go.

Old St Nick has a long night ahead of him...

Santa is now flying over southeast Asia, first arriving in Malaysia.

He could be stocking up on more presents, as the country is home to three of the world's ten largest shopping malls.

Exitingly Santa is now heading Christmas Island - where it's Christmas every day of the year (not really).

He's sure to feel at home as he plunges down those chimneys to leave presents for all the boys and girls.

Rumour has it the island is where Santa spends his summer months - and that's how it got its name!

Santa is just arriving in Perth, Australia after stopping in Neewman. He's heading towards the Australian coastline where he will deliver more presents to the children of the world.

It's currently almost 11:30pm and 19C - but it will rise up to 28C by tomorrow.

As Santa reaches Indonesia, he has also passed a major milestone of his own.

He has now delivered more than 1.5 billion presentws to children all around the world.

But he still has a long way to go if he's going to make all his drop-offs by morning.

You'd be forgiven for having a momet of deja vu as Santa returns - again - to China to continue his present-giving.

Because night comes first in the eastern parts of the world and last in the western parts, he must fly repeatedly north to south, gradually travelling from the east to the west of the globe.

That's why some of the worl's largest countries - such as China, Russia, India and the United States - will be visited repeatedly throughout the day and night.

Santa is returning to sandy islands now but sadly he won't have time to stop for a well-earned rest.

He'll be reaching the Phillipines in arond five minutes, where it's almost 11pm.

From there, he'll continue south until he reaches Indonesia.

Santa is being treated to all the wonders of the world tonight as he continues delivering gifts.

He has been flying over the Great Wall of China - which is so large than experts can even point it out from space.

He might get to see all the destinations he's ever dreamed of - but this is work, not leisure for him remember.

Santa has been over China for some time now, delivering lots of presents.

As the most populated country in the world, Father Christmas will tick lots of stops off on his list here.

Santa's elves tell us he is right on schedule, so there should be no issues with delivering in the UK and US later today.

Santa has just arrived in Jeju City in South Korea and is heading onto nearby Jusan.

He's already delivered a whopping one billion parcels to children all around the world.

He'll be coming to the UK in around ten hours time.

Norad organisers have shared footage of 'mirthful' volunteers taking calls after clocking on at their base in Colorado Springs.

The @NoradSanta account on X, formerly Twitter, posted the clip along with the caption: 'It’s early in Colorado Springs at the #NORADTracksSanta Operations Center, and our mirthful volunteers are busy taking calls, answering important questions from you!'

In response to someone suggesting that Santa was 'much faster than a nuclear missile', the account said: 'Santa is definitely not a missile, but he DOES travel faster than starlight!'

More than 800,000 gifts have now been delivered, the tracker reveals.

The updated total came after Santa was spotted over the suitable-named Santa Rita in the Pacific Ocean territory of Guam.

Next stop was due to be Kimbe in Papua New Guinea, followed by that same nation's Port Moresby, after travelling through New Zealand.

Santa has spent quite some time flying over the Pacific Ocean, and is now approaching the eastern coast of Japan.

He dropped off presents at the Kuril islands before heading back up to Russia.

He'll be reaching Nogril soon.

Santa has just finished delivering gifts to children in New Caledonia, to the east of Australia.

He's now headed for Vanautu. There are lots of small island groups in this area - keep an eye out for the Solomon Islands coming up soon too.

Santa's heading north again as he continues his trip around the world.

He's currently on his way to Fiji, where it's around 00:15am.

Santa is approaching Antarctica where he'll be paying a visit to all the hard-working scientists away from their families for research this Christmas.

After that, he'll turn back north and continue delivering in warmer temperatures again.

He'll be back in Queenstown, New Zealand in just over five minutes.

Santa is now heading south all the way down to Antarctica, where he'll be delivering some very special gifts.

He's visiting the Mcmurdo research station, operated by the United States.

He'll arrive in about ten minutes.

Santa Claus has touched down in New Zealand just moments ago.

He started by delivering presents to children in Auckland, and he'll later visit Wellington beforwe heading back up north.

We just caught sight of Santa visiting the island of Samoa, as he continues his journey south towards New Zealand.

He is now on his way past Tonga and has delivered more than 250million gifts.

As Santa's sleigh passed over island of Nauru a minute ago, Norad's satellites gave us an excellent overhead shot which showed Rudolph leading the reindeer through the darkness of the night.

His bright red nose was easily visible, meaning Santa will have no problem finding his way tonight.

Santa's now left Russia - for now - and is still heading southn on a course that will eventually take him to Australial and New Zealand.

His next stop is Majuro, in the Marshall Islands.

Santa is currently heading south towards the village of Esso in eastern Russia.

He's scheduled to arrive in around five minutes.

There have been good flying conditions so far with no weather or travel delays, so it's so far, so good.

As Santa heads towards Magadan, also in eastern Russia, he has already delivered a huge 62 million presents.

There's no rest for him and no let-up in his demanding schedule.

But don't worry - he's had plenty of practice.

Santa's first stop will be Uelen in Russia.

He's currently on his way there and will be leaving presents in children's stockings, shoes and all other items depending on the local tradition.

Here's our first look at Santa on his way around the globe as he brings festive cheer and happiness to every child in the world.

He's currently still over the North Pole, but ahs already delivered some gifts on the way.

Santa has just taken off from his home in the North Pole.

He's going to be delivering presents to 2.4 billion children in just 24 hours.

It's a huge task, but we'll be with him every step of the way. We'll bring you his first stop-off shortly.

We've just heard from our elf sources in the North Pole that Santa is now getting ready for take-off.

Stay tuned for all the latest updates...

After weeks of waiting, meeting thousands of chilren and overseeing the production of billions of gifts, Santa must be getting excited for his big moment.

It may take 364 days of preparation, but his dedication to his craft is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Norad's latest update is that Santa will take off within the next hour.

His final preparations are almost complete, and the world's satellites are ready to update us the whole way.

Once Santa sets out on his journey, we'll get live updates about where he is, what country he's flying over and what time it is.

There's even a special onboard camera so we can watch his progress live.

Here's a few snaps from last year's journey.

Santa's job is always a hard one, and this year is no different.

According to children's charity Unicef's latest estimate, there are more than 2.4billion children under 18 in the world.

That's a whole lot of presents!

Norad's satellites and radar technology are now all ready to track Santa as he delivers billions of presents in just one day today.

We're now just waiting on the big man himself to give the go-ahead - and then we'll be letting you know where he is throughout the day,

Here he is getting ready!

As well as following our Santa tracker here, any children wishing to find out how his journey is going can call Norad themselves.

There are 1,000 of Santa's helpers ready and waiting to update them on his progress.

Norad's Santa tracker is a 70-year tradition that began when a child accidentally phoned a top secret US military base at the height of the Cold War and asked to speak to Santa.

The command's director of operations Colonel Harry Shoup answered the call. On the other end was a child's voice asking: 'Is this Santa Claus?'

After the initial phone call in 1955, it became clear a department store had accidentally printed the wrong number on an advert telling children to phone Santa.

With the phones ringing off the hook, staff were instructed to answer them as Santa Claus so as not to disappoint the children - and the Santa tracker began,

Sant's elves have told us (and NORAD) that he is just making final preparations for his journey ahead of setting off from the North Pole.

The final presents are being loaded onto his sleigh and he'll be heading off as soon as all the safety checks are complete.

After a rocky few weeks of weather in the UK and around the world, there's good news early this Christmas Eve.

Weather conditions are said to be good for flying, meaning there are no anticipated delays to Santa's trip.

In the control room, everything seems to be under control - with Santa getting some helpful route assistance from the US.

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline's 2024 Santa tracker! We'll be bringing you all the live updates as he jets around the world today, helped by his team of trusty reindeer.

This is not a drill people. Get those carrots out, milk poured and cookies on a plate. Santa Claus is coming to town!