This Christmas season marks seven decades of the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracking Santa Claus on radar as he flies his reindeer-powered sleigh around the globe.
“NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route, which means we cannot predict where and when he will arrive at your house,” said a senior NORAD official.
Fighter pilots have intercepted Santa many times over the years. When they do, the pilots tip their wings in greetings and often take photos, the official said.
NORAD has Santa cams in space that take video of him flying. These videos appear online almost every hour on Christmas Eve.
NORAD’s Santa Operations Center is fully functional beginning Dec. 24 at 4 a.m. MST. Children can call 877-446-6723 to talk directly to a Santa tracker, who will be able to tell callers his current location. Operators are available until midnight.
More than 1,000 Canadian and American uniformed personnel, War Department civilians and local participants at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where NORAD is located, volunteer their time Christmas Eve to answer the hundreds of thousands of phone calls that come in from around the world.
Each year on Dec. 24, Santa Claus and his reindeer launch from the North Pole very early in the morning for their famous trip around the world.
The minute they launch, NORAD starts to track him, the official said.
Besides tracking Santa, NORAD is responsible for aerospace and maritime warning in defense of North America. The organization is jointly run by the U.S. and Canadian militaries.
NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, began tracking Santa in 1955. NORAD took over in 1958.
The British do their bit
In North Yorkshire, personnel at RAF Fylingdales not only provide a continuous ballistic missile early warning service, but they also help the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) track Santa – becoming some of the first people to know when the big man is coming to town.
But why does NORAD track Santa?
In December 1955, a series of events that sound like the beginning of a delightful Christmas film led to the tradition of NORAD tracking Santa.
A local Sears catalogue published an advert inviting children to call Santa Claus, but they misprinted the telephone number by one digit which just happened to be an unlisted number and a direct line to the late Colonel Harry Shoup, the commanding officer on duty at NORAD.
Known for being a stern, no-nonsense officer, Col Shoup spoke with a little girl who was very keen to speak to Santa.
In a move that eventually led to Shoup being nicknamed Santa Colonel, the senior officer pretended to be Santa and spoke to the girl, much to her delight.
Capt Hejduk said: “Colonel Shoup was touched by the light of Christmas and knew right away what had happened and started playing along and that’s how the tradition was born.
“He directed all his colleagues the same.
“When the phone rang – and it rang off the hook, as I understand it – to pick up and play along with this kind of Santa piece.”
This kind gesture led to a NORAD tradition that millions of children around the world have enjoyed for nearly 70 years.
