From Australia, Japan and Taiwan, Santa Claus began to distribute gifts, under the close supervision of the American armed forces, who for decades have followed his path, every December 24, and informed children of when to expect him.

After departing from its base in the North Pole, Agios was flying over Jakarta, Indonesia at around 17:38 (Greece time), according to the US and Canada’s Military Aviation Security Administration (Norad). His sled flies faster than even F-15 fighters, so that he can travel around the world in 24 hours. “He’s slowing down, so we can keep up with him,” assured Norad, who spotted the red nose of Rudolph, one of the reindeer pulling the sleigh, on her radar.

Santa Claus has already handed out about one and a half billion presents in Oceania and Asia, to countries that, due to the time difference, have already entered December 25th.

Norad’s “tracking” of Santa’s march around the world is a custom that started as a joke in 1955, when a Sears department store ad published in a local Colorado newspaper invited readers to call Santa Claus. But the phone listed there was, in the middle of the Cold War, Norad’s secret line.

After the first surprise, when a little boy called him and asked if he was Santa Claus, the officer on duty at Norad that day, Colonel Harry Sup, decided not to disappoint the children. He instructed his subordinates to inform the world of the Saint’s course and even called a local radio station himself to say that had seen a “strange” flying vehicle in the sky.