Want to know EXACTLY when Santa will land on your roof this year? My kids certainly do. And thanks to my sister telling me about the North American Aerospace Defence Command’s high tech radar tracking system, we will know. And you can, too. Here’s the link: www.noradsanta.org.
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s Christmas Eve flight. The tradition began in 1955 after a Sears Roebuck & Co. ad for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.
In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD. NORAD inherited the tradition of tracking Santa. Since that time, NORAD men, women, family, and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls and emails from children. In addition, they now track Santa using the internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa’s whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
This year, you could be among them. Check out the website with your kids, but give yourselves time. There’s lots to do there, from reading FAQs about Santa to a kids’ countdown to tracking Santa in 3D and even emailing the Big Man in Red! You’ll even learn how Norad tracks Santa. Radar, satellites, Santa Cams, and fighter jets are just the tip of the iceberg. Wow, who needs reindeer when you’ve got fighter jets?
Santa, that’s who!
