Every year on Christmas Eve, the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) mission shifts from “blow s—t up” to “glow s—t up” with its traditional Santa tracker.
As eager children sit awake on Christmas Eve, they want to know how close Santa is to dropping off presents at their houses. NORAD pulls through every year, and they have for the past 70 years.
Funny to think that NORAD’s Santa tracking tradition began as a fluke, an accident, a misdialed phone number.
Why NORAD Has Been Tracking Santa Every Year for Decades
NORAD Tracks Santa, the official name of the annual program, actually predates NORAD itself, as the tradition began in its preceding organization. “In 1955, a young child, trying to reach Santa, misdialed a printed phone number from a department store ad in the local newspaper,” recounts NORAD.
“Instead of calling Santa, the child called the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night who answered the child’s phone call, was quick to realize the mistake, and not wanting to let down the child, told the child where Santa was currently located. So began the connection between NORAD and Santa that continued when NORAD was formed in 1958.”
Kids (or, I suppose, curious adults) can dial 1-877-HI-NORAD or check out the NORAD Tracks Santa updates on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and the official tracking website.
“Each year, the NORAD Tracks Santa website receives several million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers typically answer more than 130,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children across the globe.”
And before somebody writes in with a correction, NORAD is a monitoring organization that tracks activity over and around the US and Canada, not one that lobs bombs. But they’re still part of the military, so it all feeds into the one machine.
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