After making sure the reindeer are ready for takeoff and stuffing his sleigh with goodies for all the good kids, Santa Claus and his reindeer are now on their way to visit millions of homes worldwide.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which is in charge of policing the skies over the United States and Canada, activates its Santa tracking system at 6 a.m. ET on Christmas Eve. In the meantime, people can follow Santa’s journey around the globe on NORAD’s website or by calling the command center at 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the press secretary for the Pentagon, stated this week that last year alone, NORAD handled over 73,000 calls on December 24 alone. In addition, the NORAD news release states that the tracking service can be accessed via social media, the NORAD Tracks Santa app, Amazon Alexa, OnStar, SiriusXM, and the Bing search engine.
“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…." – NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, BY CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE#NORADTracksSanta is getting ready for its 68th year of Santa tracking with a new call center being primed for the big day. pic.twitter.com/4fflHOBKwk
— NORAD Tracks Santa (@NoradSanta) December 21, 2023
The 68th year that NORAD has tracked Santa’s Christmas travels around the globe began by accident in 1955, when a local newspaper ad told kids they could call Santa directly—the only mistake in the number was the spelling—and the kid ended up calling the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, instead of Santa.
“After receiving more calls, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night, assigned a duty officer to answer calls, and a tradition was born, which continued when NORAD was formed in 1958. Shoup quickly realized a mistake had been made and assured the child he was Santa.”
Millions of families and kids worldwide have used the tracking service to track Santa’s whereabouts, according to NORAD, which claims that the tradition was started decades ago. “Over the years, many different fighter aircraft have intercepted Santa,” Lt. Gen. Blaise Frawley of NORAD told NBC’s Lester Holt. “We’ll normally give him a ‘wing wag’ as we peel off.”