Traditionally, Santa starts out in the Pacific Ocean and travels west. He visits the South Pacific first, then delivers presents to the children of New Zealand and Australia.
According to NORAD, Santa usually visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he goes up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.
Santa usually starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that Japan, Asia, across to Africa, then Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central and South America.
NORAD Tracks Santa
Though they don't know exactly when Santa will arrive at your home, he starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west, going to the South Pacific, then to Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America.
He takes advantage of the Earth's time zones! He starts by delivering presents at the International Date Line and travels west following the Earth's rotation around the sun. By doing that he gains many, many extra hours of time. Children are actually waking up and opening presents while Santa is still delivering!
There are 349 sleeps (or 348 days, 7 hours, 59 minutes, 54 seconds) until Christmas Day on Glasses Island. That's December 25, 2023! If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
We do, however, know from history that it appears he arrives only when children are asleep! In most countries, it seems Santa arrives between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on December 24th. If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses.
Santa Claus has a magic key that he uses to get into homes, apartments, townhouses and condos without a chimney. He also uses this key for homes that have a chimney that is too small for him to fit down (too many Christmas cookies makes it a tight fit).
Overall, the average age in the United States for no longer believing in Santa Claus is 8.4 years old. Mississippi has the oldest average age at 10.2 years old. Not far behind is Iowa where the average age is 9.9 years old.
Exactly how old is Santa? According to the blog Email Santa, Santa Claus is 1,751 years old as of 2022. In fact, the origins of Santa Claus can be traced all the way back to a monk named Saint Nicholas, who was born between 260 and 280 A.D. in a village called Patara, which is part of modern-day Turkey.
The Age Most Kids Figure It Out
In most cases, eight or nine is the age that children stop believing in Santa, but not for the reasons you'd think. While most parents would probably blame their child's peers for blowing the whistle, it actually has more to do with the normal development of a child's brain.
When will Santa arrive? According to NORAD, Kris Kringle is expected to take off at 3 a.m. Christmas Eve morning. If you're wondering when Santa will stop at your house, NORAD said he usually arrives between 9 p.m. and midnight on Christmas Eve in most countries.
Santa stays at the North Pole year-round. It's where he trains the reindeer, shines his sleigh, ice fishes, tries Mrs. Claus' recipes and more. Read on to learn fun facts about some of the places around the North Pole!
Santa is real in the sense that he was an actual person. Otherwise known as Saint Nicholas, his story goes all the way back to the 3rd century. He was a monk who was born in 280 A.D. in modern-day Turkey. As an only child, he was given great affection by his parents.
Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus. The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.
In fact, when Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862, Santa was a small elflike figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years, changing the color of his coat from tan to the red he's known for today.
In 2019, House Method surveyed more than 4,500 families across the United States, and found the overall average age for no longer believing in Santa Claus is 8.4 years old. (But it varies by state: Kids in Mississippi generally believe until they're 10, while kids in Oregon stop believing at 7.)
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
Similar to Santa, the elves believe Mrs. Claus is roughly the same age, around 1,700 years old. Mrs. Claus is from Canada, so she is very used to the cold temperatures in the North Pole.
So 3! is 3 times 2 times 1, or six — the number of permutations for our example traveling salesman. Santa has to visit nearly 396 million houses. Therefore, the number of possible routes he can take is 395,830,485! — or 8.9 times 10 to the 3.2 billionth power.
They assumed a travel time for Santa Claus of 12 hours, although taking into account time zones and presuming he travels from east to west, he would have an additional 24 hours to complete the task. Using these figures, Santa Claus would have to travel at a speed of 1.56 x 106 m/s. That's about 0.5% the speed of light.
"It's not an overnight shift in thinking," says Laura Lamminen, Ph. D., a pediatric psychologist at Children's Health℠, "and there's no set age where children should know the truth about Santa Claus." Dr. Lamminen says each family and each child within that family will be ready to talk about Santa at different ages.
But don't worry about Santa spying on you. He doesn't do it. He knows when you are asleep or awake just like YOU know when someone is asleep or awake.
Each year, according to NORAD, Santa arrives between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on December 24, but only if the kids are nestled in their beds. Fear not, though, if the children are still awake, he comes back!