Santa Claus has finished his duties for this year and safely returned home. NORAD said Santa got back to the North Pole shortly after 5am yesterday after delivering 8,186,671,107 Christmas presents.

NORAD said Santa got back to the North Pole shortly after 5 a.m. EST. Santa's arrival times Although the NORAD tracker reflected where Santa was at different points on his route around the world ...

As it does every year, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Command, tracked Santa on his trip around the world on Christmas Eve so children and families could see where he was.

In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada —- known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa.

NORAD, which is responsible for protecting the skies over the United States and Canada, activates its Santa tracking system at 6 a.m. ET on Christmas Eve.

NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War, predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. The tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns, such as the ...

FILE – NORAD Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Charles D. Luckey takes a call while volunteering at the NORAD Tracks Santa center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Dec. 24, 2014.

This image provided by NORAD shows the command's Santa tracker. (NORAD via AP) In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80 foot plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects.

More than 1,250 uniformed personnel from the United States and Canada volunteer on Christmas Eve to answer phone calls and emails that NORAD receives while its Santa tracker is live.