Santa Tracker 2012: NORAD, Google Earth Provide Live Stream Of Where Santa Is

Santa Claus has begun his trek with Rudolf and the eight other reindeer on his sleigh around the world to deliver presents for all of the well behaved boys and girls.

According to Google, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolf have been preparing for their Christmas Eve trip all day and have already begun delivering presents in some places. Google said Santa and his reindeer took off at 5:00 a.m. EST and made his first stop in Auckland, New Zealand where he delivered over 700 million gifts. Then, Santa stopped to reload his sleigh with more gifts before making his way to Japan on Chichi-jima Island. His next stop will be China and he will make his way over to the U.S. before the night is over.

But before you go to sleep on Monday, you can track and even live stream St. Nick on his journey form the North Pole in a number of ways. Both Google Maps and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) have live feeds of Santa's whereabouts as he delivers gifts to children who have been good all year.

Google has a live feed of Santa journey on its official tracker here. In addition to the Santa tracker online, there's a new extension for Google Chrome and an Android app for smartphones and tablets.

Google Maps will also post the latest updates from the man in the big red suit on its Google+, Facebook and Twitter pages. Users can also personally call Santa on Google.

You can also use NORAD's Santa tracker app for 2012 in eight different languages courtesy of volunteer Santa trackers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command. As he makes his trip, NORAD will post videos of Santa delivering presents on its YouTube channel.

The app called "NORAD Tracks Santa" is available on iOS, Android, Windows 8 and web apps. In addition to the free app, children can go to www.noradsanta.org, call the hotline at 1-877-HI-NORAD, or email noradtrackssanta@outlook.com on Christmas Eve to get information on Santa's whereabouts.

NORAD has been tracking Santa every Christmas for 57 years and gets over 102,000 phone calls and 7,700 emails from children around the world.

"Every December 24th since 1955 we have been telling children exactly where Santa is so that children all over the world can make sure that they're in bed on time so that Santa will deliver their presents," deputy chief at NORAD, Stacey Knott, told Reuters.

Wondering how Santa makes it around the whole world in one night or how he gets into houses or apartments without fireplaces? You can ask Santa these and many other questions at Pearl.com's Ask Santa forum.