December 23, 2024 – Starting at Midnight tonight, kids can start tracking Santa’s progress around the world with the help of the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD.
NORAD’s Santa Tracker is an annual Christmas-themed program NORAD simulates the tracking of Santa Claus, who is said to leave the North Pole to travel around the world on his mission to deliver presents to children every year on Christmas Eve.
The program originated before the actual formation of NORAD. According to legend, a Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper, which told children they could place a call to Santa Claus and included the number ME 2-6681. A call allegedly came through to Colorado Springs’ Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as one digit was misprinted. However, a more accurate version of the story is that it was only one child that misdialed the number on November 30th. Despite the origions, CONAD saw it as a public relations opportunity and continued the tradition in 1956. NORAD took reporting responsibility from CONAD in 1958.
NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible. Each volunteer handles about 40 telephone calls per hour and the team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than two hundred countries and territories.
To track Santa, click HERE, or you can call 1-877-HI-NORAD. You can also track Santa on the “NORAD tracks Santa” apps for Itunes and Google Play.
