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Home > Resources > Laboratory News
Track Santa's Flight Online on Christmas Eve December 23, 2009
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) tracked Santa's Christmas Eve flight.
The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement 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 the 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 U.S. created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on 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 E-mails from children. In addition, NORAD now tracks Santa using the internet. In 2008, millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts visited their website. In addition to tracking Santa on the NORAD Tracks Santa homepage, you can also track his flight in Google Earth.
Source: NORAD
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