Over the years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD has developed a bit of an understanding of how Santa conducts himself on Christmas Eve.
NORAD Tracks Santa celebrates 70 years this year.
“He starts off from the North Pole, and that’s where we get our first tracking solutions on him. As he progresses across the world, we track primarily using infrared and the intensity of Rudolph’s nose,” notes Lieutenant-General Iain Huddleston. “We can see, to a reasonable degree, the path he tracks across the surface of the Earth. He starts at the International Dateline in the Pacific, and he travels west.”
Huddleston explains Santa visits houses between nine and midnight. “Kids need to make sure they’re in bed by nine. Otherwise, he might be delayed in his visit to their house.”
Back in 1955, after seeing a promotion in a local U.S. newspaper, a young child accidentally dialed the unlisted phone number to NORAD’s predecessor – the Continental Air Defense Command, commanded by Colonel Harry Shoup that night.
Shoup realized that by using sensors, NORAD could contribute to the tracking of Santa and played along. “Passing the information to kids in that instance and around the world,” Huddleston adds. “That tradition has been going on for 70 years now. And we’re supported by a lot of volunteers and a lot of local organizations support us on the day.”
Huddleston says Christmas Eve is a magical time, as thousands of people respond to phone calls in the NORAD Operations Centre.
Kids can call 1-877-446-6723 to find Santa’s whereabouts Dec. 24.
“We’ve got a new voiceover Internet capability – web-based calling. They can just go to our website at NORADSanta.org, and there’s a button they can press. The website supports a number of languages. We also have virtual translator support for another 200 languages to support children around the world,” Huddleston explains.
The website also has games and challenges, and there’s also a NORAD Tracks Santa Smartphone app available.
“We had 32 million hits last year on our website, representing 5.5 million unique visitors, and 380,000 calls over the course of a single day. In one hour, there were 60,000 calls. I think that was later in the afternoon. But an incredible response to all our engagements,” Huddleston notes.
