Video: Tracking Santa Claus with NORAD: 5 things you should know According to NORAD, Santa usually starts his journey around the world at the Republic of Kiribati, a collection of 32 atolls in the Pacific Ocean scattered across the International Date Line. He then heads to New Zealand and Australia before moving on to Japan and Asia. Africa and Europe are next, followed by North America and South America. "Santa calls the shots," NORAD says on its website. We just track him! How many people follow Santa? Last year, volunteers answered 114,000 phone calls from around the world. The website had 22.3 million unique visitors. NORAD Tracks Santa had 1.2 million followers on Facebook and 129,000 on Twitter. Why does NORAD offer Santa tracking service? In 1955, a local newspaper advertisement invited children to call Santa Claus but mistakenly printed the number for a US defence base. Rather than disappoint the children, commanders told them they indeed knew where Santa was. NORAD, a US-Canadian operation based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, US continues the tradition every Christmas Eve. Why was there controversy this year? A children's advocacy group complained that an animated video on the NORAD Tracks Santa website injected militarism into Christmas by showing fighter jets escorting Santa's sleigh on a 39-second video promoting the event. NORAD says the fighter escort is nothing new. NORAD began depicting jets accompanying Santa and his reindeer in the 1960s. What are most asked questions? Among the questions children have had on their minds when they called in previous years: Am I on the nice list or the naughty list? Can you put my brother on the naughty list? Are you an elf? How much to adopt one of Santa's reindeer?