Tracking Santa’s approach to St. Louis has become a high-tech tradition, thanks to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). The countdown starts on Christmas Eve as Santa loads up his sled and flies to Russia to begin delivering presents. NORAD tracks Santa with a variety of cutting edge military equipment, from satellite and radar to F-22 escorts. (Did you know that Rudolph's red nose gives off an infrared signature trackable by satellite?)
NORAD, which is a joint military operation of the American and Canadian governments, has been tracking Santa for kids since 1955. It all started as an accident when a Sear's sponsored phone number for Santa was misprinted, leading children to call NORAD's hotline instead. Colonel Harry Shoup, the operation commander took the children's phone calls seriously and had his staff check the radar for Santa.
Every year since then, NORAD volunteers have kept the Christmas tradition going. Today’s kids can watch Santa's progress on their home computers and mobile devices, as well as follow the night's tracking on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.
If your little ones want to talk to a person, you can call the NORAD trackers at (877) HI NORAD / (877) 446-6723. The center opens at 4am December 24 Central Time and stays open until 4am Central on December 25th.
They also welcome emails at noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.
Tune in on Christmas Eve and your kids can watch videos on the “NORAD Tracks Santa” YouTube channel. Before Christmas Eve the site has highlights from the 2010 Santa journey and greetings from NORAD volunteers. You don’t want to miss the Santa cams as a F-22 pilot does a fly by on Santa when he approaches the American border.
Hint to moms: Santa usually gets to America around 9pm on Christmas Eve and tries to approach each city between 9pm and Midnight local time. You can track Santa all Christmas Eve, because it takes 24 hours to make his big run. He starts his journey in Russia and makes the last drop off in Alaska.
Comments