Photo: NORAD SANTA
‘Tis the season to enjoy the holidays and what better way to do so if not by tracking Santa’s sleigh all around the world to know exactly when he will be in your country? Your Christmas present might just be around the corner.
This marks the 67th year that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is delighting us with the possibility of following Santa’s journey. And what a journey it is to travel around the world in one night and stop in each country for children and adults. He does so by having horsepower (he's got reindeerpower instead), nor a jet engine. Wouldn't some car manufacturers love to know his secret...
NORAD is a joint organization between the United States and Canada, responsible for tracking down objects in North American airspace and alerting if there is any aerial threat.
NORAD Tracks Santa is held annually since 1955 when one of the commanders that were on duty got a suspicious call from a child that was trying to call Santa. This accident happened due to a misprinted phone number from a department store ad in the local newspaper, The Gazette. Instead of calling Santa, the child dialed the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The one who answered the phone was Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, who quickly realized that it was just an innocent child trying to contact Santa. To avoid disappointing the kid, he made him believe he was, in fact, Santa himself. This tradition followed until 1958 when NORAD was formed.
And here we are now, 67 years later, waiting for that wonderful day on 24th December when everyone will wait for Santa to finally appear on the radar.
“In fact, what started because of a typo has flourished and is recognized as one of the Defense Department's largest community outreach programs,” the United States Air Force representatives stated.
The official website hosts a 3D tracker that uses Microsoft Bing Maps.
The Official Site goes live every year on 1st December with plenty of Christmasy games before kicking off on 24th December with the tracking radar.
If you want to follow Santa’s journey from the North Pole to the rest of the world and see where he is at any given moment, you can do so by either using your computer or the NORAD Tracks Santa app on either the Appstore or Google Play. You can also call +1 (877) HI-NORAD and a Staff Member will gladly tell you his exact location. The people that access the website on Saturday, 24th December at 04:00 a.m. EST (07:00 GMT) can see Santa preparing his sleigh before starting his journey at 06:00 a.m. EST (09:00 GMT).
You can also access the site to play a variety of wonderful games, listen to Santa’s favorite songs, buy something from the Gift Shop, watch Christmas movies, and much more.
NORAD is a joint organization between the United States and Canada, responsible for tracking down objects in North American airspace and alerting if there is any aerial threat.
NORAD Tracks Santa is held annually since 1955 when one of the commanders that were on duty got a suspicious call from a child that was trying to call Santa. This accident happened due to a misprinted phone number from a department store ad in the local newspaper, The Gazette. Instead of calling Santa, the child dialed the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The one who answered the phone was Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, who quickly realized that it was just an innocent child trying to contact Santa. To avoid disappointing the kid, he made him believe he was, in fact, Santa himself. This tradition followed until 1958 when NORAD was formed.
And here we are now, 67 years later, waiting for that wonderful day on 24th December when everyone will wait for Santa to finally appear on the radar.
“In fact, what started because of a typo has flourished and is recognized as one of the Defense Department's largest community outreach programs,” the United States Air Force representatives stated.
The official website hosts a 3D tracker that uses Microsoft Bing Maps.
The Official Site goes live every year on 1st December with plenty of Christmasy games before kicking off on 24th December with the tracking radar.
If you want to follow Santa’s journey from the North Pole to the rest of the world and see where he is at any given moment, you can do so by either using your computer or the NORAD Tracks Santa app on either the Appstore or Google Play. You can also call +1 (877) HI-NORAD and a Staff Member will gladly tell you his exact location. The people that access the website on Saturday, 24th December at 04:00 a.m. EST (07:00 GMT) can see Santa preparing his sleigh before starting his journey at 06:00 a.m. EST (09:00 GMT).
You can also access the site to play a variety of wonderful games, listen to Santa’s favorite songs, buy something from the Gift Shop, watch Christmas movies, and much more.
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