Hey Look! Santa’s Headed for Our House!
If your youngsters can’t sleep on Christmas Eve because they’re impatient for Santa, take them to a computer and let them track the jolly old boy.
The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) Santa tracking site has daily activities for children, but the real thrill is on Christmas Eve when they can track Santa as he delivers toys to children around the world.
The idea started on Christmas Eve in 1955. A Colorado Springs newspaper misprinted a Sears, Roebuck and Company advertisement for children to call a hotline and check the progress of Santa Claus. The number erroneously printed was for the Air Defense Command.
“When the red phone rings it is the four-star general calling from the Pentagon,” recalled Col. Harry Shoup, Director of Operations. On Christmas Eve 1955, however, there was no emergency and no general on the other end. It was a little boy.
“Are you really Santa Claus?” he asked.
The colonel was dumfounded. At first he suspected a prank from the staff, but he soon concluded that “the phones were screwed up.”
NORAD personnel have been manning the Santa hotline ever since.
In 1998, a web site was activated that tracks Santa’s progress around the world, at www.noradsanta.com. This year the site will track Santa in 3-D through Google Earth.
NORAD tracks Santa starting with his liftoff and follows him through the night using the same technology that tracks heat-seeking missiles. In this case the satellite is tracking Rudolph’s bright shiny nose, which gives off heat.
Special Santa-cams have been set up around the world to produce images. The cameras take high speed digital footage from various stops around the globe that Santa visits, starting at 2 a.m.