Finding it hard to keep the children occupied when they are desperate to see Christmas Day? Well why not help them keep the magic alive by tracking Father Christmas live on his journey to your chimney?

Every year NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) launches its interactive tool to help kids and adults follow Father Christmas around the world on December 24.

This year is no different and the official NORAD Santa Tracker is now LIVE.

You can follow the jolly old St. Nick as he makes his journey around the world visiting each and every boy and girl.

NORAD doesn't just track Father Christmas either, their US agency has plenty of interactive elements on its festive site. There are games and facts all about Santa's sleigh, his route and the reindeer that will be helping him.

Traditionally NORAD is responsible for defending airspace, but for the last 60 years has embraced a tradition of following the bearded sky wizard around the world.

Santa - or Father Christmas to us Brits - will travel an estimated 510,000,000 kilometers over the course of one night - moving at a speed of 10,703,437.5km/hr.

Santa's sleigh according to NORAD

That works out at roughly 1,800 miles per second, and some very tired reindeer.

Volunteers are also on the phone lines at a call entre, taking around 70,000 phone from children in 200 countries asking where Santa is.

The website lists the email address as: noradtrackssanta@outlook.com and also says you can phone the call centre on 00-1-719-556-5211.

A staff member will reply and provide details of Santa's last known location - and also encourage your children to get to bed.

How many houses does Father Christmas visit?

According to the tracker, Santa will call in on 390,000 homes every minute during his Christmas Eve rush.

If he stops to scoff down a mince pie at each one, he will have consumed around 71,764,000,000 in the course of one night.

How did the tradition start?

NORAD began tracking Santa when a 1955 advert encouraged children to phone Santa - but gave the wrong number.

Santa's will descend on HO
Santa's will descend on homes across Burton and South Derbyshire this evening

When he realised what had happened, Colonel Harry Shoup - who came to be known as the "Santa Colonel" - quickly told his staff to answer the calls with an update on Father Christmas's current position.

It developed into a tradition where volunteers staff call centres on Christmas Eve and take around 70,000 phone calls each year from 200 countries.

However the tracker has adapted with the times, becoming more advanced through the years.

And now it is available online in 3D each year alongside its own Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts.

Writing to fans on Facebook, NORAD said: "Thank you for letting us be part of the magic Santa.

"We can't wait to track you again this year and help the believers around the world follow your journey."