Santa keeps a long list of children who have been good throughout the year. His list grows longer each year due to the world's increasing population. Check out the world’s population right now.

Though his list gets longer, Santa still has to deliver all of the presents in the same amount of time. If one were to assume he works in the realm of standard time, he would need to limit his stay to about three
ten-thousandths of a second per home!

Santa Claus is more than 16 centuries old, yet he does not appear to age at all. This is our biggest
clue that he does not work within time as we know it. His whole trip may appear to us as taking
only 24 hours, but to Santa it may last days, weeks or even months in standard time!

Santa would never rush the important job of distributing presents to children and spreading
holiday cheer to everyone, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa functions within a
different time-space continuum than the rest of us. Santa is a true mystery to us all!

Is he real?

Based on historical data and more than 50 years of NORAD tracking information, we believe that
Santa Claus is alive and well in the hearts of children throughout the world.

Santa Claus is known by many names, including Saint Nick. Historians claim that the history of
Santa starts with the tradition of Saint Nicholas, a 4th century Christian priest who lived in the
Middle East and became famous for his kindness. He was known for giving gifts to the less
fortunate, sprinkling gifts of gold down people's chimneys, and for hiding surprises in their stockings.

It may be that the Santa we know today emerged from the legacy of Saint Nicholas. Clearly, Santa's
basic approach to gift giving is strikingly similar. Could they be the same person? Only Santa Claus
knows for sure!

Long before the Wright brothers flew the first airplane or the Montgolfier brothers launched the first
hot air balloon, Santa had to find a way to travel from house to house at great speed. We know from
our Santa Cam images that Santa’s choice for quick transportation was a herd of flying reindeer.
Detailed information on these reindeer remains elusive; we do know, however, that Santa enlisted
the reindeer to help him with his worldwide mission of gift-giving. A veil of sweet mystery hides the rest.

Virginia’s letter, written in December 1897, is the most famous
example of a child wanting to know about Santa.