Anxious kids across the globe can follow Ol’ St. Nick’s sleigh route to see if he’s on track to deliver on Christmas Eve, continuing a 66-year-old tradition that started completely by accident.
Members of the NORAD tracking Santa team at the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center on Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. field calls from children in December 2019. (Tech. Sgt. Jeff Fitzmorris/NORAD via AP)
Children around the world anticipating the arrival of Christmas in a few weeks will be happy to know that the official Santa tracker is now online.
The NORAD Tracks Santa website launched on Wednesday and includes its “countdown to Christmas” clock. Kids, with their parents, can visit the site to not only track down Santa’s whereabouts starting on Christmas Eve, but in the meantime, they can play games and holiday music and visit the web store at Santa’s North Pole Village.
A large contingent of volunteer "Santa-trackers" at NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, will be fielding the thousands of calls that normally flooded the operations center from anxious youngsters when it goes live at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.
The site, which can be accessed in eight languages, is the modern-day twist on a beloved annual event that was first conceived in 1955 -- by accident. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline. Not checking it twice, the Sears Roebuck and Co. store that ran the ad printed the wrong number and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD’s predecessor.
The Sears Roebuck and Co. ad that led to the annual NORAD Tracking Santa operation. (NORAD Public Affairs, Bob Jones)
The officers on duty, of course, played along and began sharing reports of Santa’s progress as Christmas Day neared. And so the tradition began at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors North American skies and seas from a control center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.
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Today, 150 to 160 volunteers crowd into a conference room at the base, taking two-hour shifts to answer the phones as eager children call to see if Santa and his sleigh have reached their rooftops.
Visitors to the website will see updates starting at 4 a.m. EST as Santa prepares for his annual flight. Then, beginning at 6 a.m., children can call toll-free at 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to ask where Ol’ St. Nick is located.
A NORAD worker helps with the special tracking technology at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. (NORAD)
Santa has become more and more social media conscious over the years, too. Besides the call center, parents can also help their kids track the jolly man in red via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram as well as on Bing, Amazon Alexa, OnStar and mobile apps to pinpoint Santa’s exact location. A social media team typically operates from a separate conference room at the base.
And don't forget to check your friendly weather app to see how the conditions outside might affect Santa's delivery route.
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