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Each Christmas Santa still amazes us all with his global fulfilment service capabilities. Although rumours of a hostile takeover by Amazon persist, we think Father Christmas has enough public support to survive, and of course no one wants to get on his naughty list. In the current spirit of invasive digital surveillance it's more easy than you might think to track Santa's world tour, so we've put together a guide to keep an eye on the Christmas caravan from your PC, tablet, or smartphone.

How to track Santa: Using NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command)

To those of a certain age NORAD will conjure up images of a fresh faced Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy bringing the world to the edge of world war three just so they can play the latest video game. In the 1983 classic War Games, the final scenes of potential global disaster are played out in the mountain stronghold of NORAD, where generals track any nuclear missile attacks from aggressive nations (well, back then it was the Soviet Union). Today, at least online, NORAD has turned its considerable monitoring abilities to geo-locating Father Christmas, who presumably must reach some incredible, missile-like, speeds while traversing the skies. That, or they see him as a threat to national security. After all, he does still predominantly wear red.

Actually the NORAD Tracks Santa site is a glorious celebration of Father Christmas and just a fun place for kids (and adults) to waste a little time. While the primary function appears to be watching the Santa express blaze its trail across the skies, as that all happens at night (when most of us are asleep) the builders of the site have opted to include a few other distractions. These include a collection of Christmas themed songs played by the USA Air Force Band, a library that contains various traditions surrounding Father Christmas, and even a games section that unlocks a new attraction each day. We're not entirely sure what controlling a performing Dolphin in the sun drenched plains of Las Vegas has to do with Christmas, but we scored maximum points for jumping through two hoops while hitting a number of balloons with our dorsal flipper, so you won't find us complaining.

The tradition of NORAD tracking Santa's flight began back in 1955 when a misprint in an advertisement ended up with children calling NORAD (or rather it predecessor CONAD) by accident to ask where Santa was. Colonel Harry Shoup, showing a considerable good grace, had his staff check to see where the sleigh currently was, and another Christmas legend was born.

How to track Santa: Using Google's Santa Tracker

The cynical among us will be quick to point out that Google knows pretty much everything about everything these days. Well, why not use that knowledge to spread a little happiness this festive season? On the Google Santa Tracker site the search giant has put together a different Father Christmas related activity for each day in December.
 
The choices on offer range from creating jolly e-cards in which you can choose from Santa or his elf back-room staff, and place them in variety of exotic settings, to a service that creates personalised audio messages from St Nick just by asking you a few, well quite a few, questions. Everything can be emailed to you friends and family, while you all wait for the night itself. Then you can enjoy a mince pie while Google shows you how exactly the great red one does get to all the good boys and girls in the world with such a small fleet.

How to track Santa: Using Santa Update

If you prefer a more journalistic approach to the sleigh preparations and social conditions in Santa's toy workshop, then Santa Update is the place for you. This site covers the news that somehow gets missed by the wider media outlets, including radio interviews with well informed elves speculating about a strange, large building with no name in which Mr Christmas is storing something mysterious.

Santa update has also broken several stories regarding sleigh flight testing in Malaysia, speed trials through Russian airspace, and random sightings over Japan where St Nick is thought to be conducting reconnaissance missions. Any disgruntled elves out there that wish to blow the whistle on any Santa scandals can also send their reports directly to the site for publication.The real highlight though is the live radio broadcast set to take place during the big night, which Santa insiders have revealed is being called 'Operation Merry Christmas' by big beard himself.
 
 Of course if you prefer to do your own research, then there are email addresses on the site for you to contact St Nick directly and ask him his true intentions. While you're there can you put in a good word for us too? We have been really, really good this year, and would love a Microsoft Surface Pro 3.