On Sunday, the tracker experienced a brief outage, temporarily leaving children in the Pacific region unaware of Santa‘s precise location.
The collaborative US-Canadian military surveillance agency has upheld its longstanding Christmas custom of monitoring Santa’s movements, assisting children worldwide in discovering when his reindeer-powered sleigh, laden with gifts, will arrive in their town. A 3-D interactive website, located at www.noradsanta.org illustrated Santa Claus and his reindeer on an imaginary global delivery route, enabling users to click and explore details about various cities along the way.
The Santa tracker, managed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), traces its origins back to 1955 when a Colorado newspaper mistakenly printed a phone number in an advertisement, directing children to the military nerve center hotline instead of Santa. To prevent disappointment, Colonel Harry Shoup, NORAD’s director of operations at the time, instructed his staff to check radar data to provide updates on Santa’s whereabouts to the children.
Now, 68 years later, NORAD continues the tradition by establishing a temporary call center at its Colorado headquarters to answer children’s inquiries. A Facebook photo posted by the group depicted rows of people, some in uniform and others donning red Santa caps, answering phones. Notably, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden participated in the Santa tracking calls.
Despite a brief technical glitch earlier on Sunday that left children in the Pacific region uncertain about Santa’s location, the tracker was swiftly restored, ensuring the continuation of the holiday spectacle. Santa’s journey, as per NORAD, commenced with a celestial first stop at the International Space Station and included visits to Israel, Gaza, Africa, Palmer Station in Antarctica, and South America before heading to the United States. According to the tracker, Santa had delivered approximately 100,000 gifts per second, accumulating to a total of 4.9 billion presents as of 0130 GMT Monday.
While NORAD spreads festive joy during this season, the agency also fulfills its primary role in aerospace and maritime control and warning operations, including monitoring for missile launches from North Korea—a consideration that might be on Santa’s mind as he passes over, given the recent ICBM test a few days ago.