Children around the world can follow Santa Claus across the globe as he makes his journey from the North Pole to their living room by checking NORAD's live tracker.

Father Christmas made the final preparations to his present-filled sleigh before he and his reindeers, led by Rudolph and his shiny nose, took flight earlier today.

He is whizzing through the skies at an estimated 1,800 miles per second in order to cover the 316,899,308 miles needed to drop off gifts at every child's house.

Children around the world can follow Santa Claus across the globe as he makes his journey from the North Pole to their living room by checking NORAD's live tracker

It's a hectic night for Santa who runs a tight schedule and will be dropping off gifts at 390,000 homes per minute during his trip.

Some of the first homes Santa visited were Auckland, New Zealand and he was most recently spotted flying over Christchurch.

So far today Santa has delviered more than 300,000,000 gifts to excited children who are sleeping soundly in their beds.

Santa dashed past the statue of liberty during last year's flight

Father Christmas made the final preparations to his present-filled sleigh before he and his reindeers, led by Rudolph and his shiny nose, took flight earlier today as shown on the NORAD tracker website

NORAD's Santa tracker appeared at risk this year after the federal government shut down on Friday at midnight after Democrats rejected President Donald Trump's proposed $5.7billion border wall bill.

But the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which is funded by the federal government, announced that it would still track Santa's flight across the globe, despite the freeze on its funds.

In a statement it said: 'In the event of a government shutdown, NORAD will continue with its 63-year tradition of NORAD Tracks Santa on Dec. 24.'

'Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by approximately 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible each and every year.'

It's a hectic night for Santa who runs a tight schedule and will be dropping off gifts at 390,000 homes per minute during his trip (elves preparing gifts at the North Pole)

Children call in to NORAD on Christmas Eve to ask about Santa's whereabouts and last year Melania Trump helped answer the calls and share updates on where Old Saint Nick is around the globe.

NORAD has been following Santa's movements from space since 1955, when an advert encouraging children to phone Santa gave out its number instead.

It told children to give Santa Claus a call 'any time day or night' on his private phone, but accidentally gave the number ME-2-6681, which connected to the NORAD 'hotline'.

Colonel Harry Shoup received the call on a telephone meant to be used during an incidence of impending attack by the Soviet Union, but responded in a playful way and let the boy know where Santa was en route from the North Pole.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will track Santa Claus' location this year despite the government shutdown

Colonel Shoup ordered staff to answer calls with an update on Father Christmas' location and the tradition has continued, now with a live tracker of Santa's journey online.

The website shows his path above different countries and has a counter that reveals the number of presents delivered.

Although Father Christmas won't set off until Christmas Eve, the site has been live all this month to get people ready.

If users cannot access the tracker or a phone line there is also an email address you can contact to get the latest updates.

According to the website the email address is; noradtrackssanta@outlook.com

As well as a clock with a countdown to Christmas Eve there are weather updates, games, films and Christmas stories available on the site.

Volunteers are manning NORAD's 157 phone lines and computers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs to field hundreds of phone calls, emails and tweets from anxious children, wondering what time Santa will arrive

'One of our favourite places on the website is the Holiday Activities page under Library', according to the NORAD Facebook page.

'You can see a personalised message from Santa, Elf Yourself, print out colouring pages, and SO MUCH MORE'.

Volunteers are manning NORAD's 157 phone lines and computers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs to field hundreds of phone calls, emails and tweets from anxious children, wondering what time Santa will arrive.

It says you can phone the call centre on 00-1-719-556-5211.

They generally get around 70,000 calls from children in around 200 countries checking his location.

Parents and guardians will also want to ensure their children are in bed before Santa arrives so he stops and makes his much-anticipated delivery.

Volunteers will share Santa's location on Facebook and Twitter. In 2014 Santa got 1.6 million Facebook likes.

Normally the NORAD facility is responsible for defending the skies of the US and Canada and was originally located within Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs in order to withstand a nuclear attack.

You can also track Santa using Amazon Alexa by installing the ‘NORAD Tracks Santa’ skill which is free from Amazon.

Another tracker - Google’s Santa Tracker website and Android app - also went live today.

‘For 13 years, Google’s Santa Tracker has been a fun, educational and interactive way for fans to celebrate the holiday season', a Google spokesperson said.

This allows fans worldwide to follow Santa's progress on either the desktop web, mobile web (Android/iOS), Android app, Android TV app and Chromecast.