Holiday Happenings

NORAD Tracks Santa

Posted: Dec 24, 2012 11:51 AM by Chet Layman
Updated: Dec 24, 2012 11:55 AM

While you're watching this broadcast...Santa and his sleigh are winging their way around the world...delivering toys. For one day out of the year...the governmental agency in charge of tracking potential threats to North American tunes their radar devices to that jolly old elf and his eight tiny reindeer.

In 1955 a Colorado Spring store...home base for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, ran an ad with a phone number you could call to find out where Santa was. Lt. Gen. Thomas Lawson from NORAD-Canada says that misprint lead to a 5 decade tradition. "In fact that misprint directed them right in to the command center here at NORAD. A colonel here on duty, instead of directing them somewhere else, said we've got him on radar we can tell you exactly where he is. More calls followed of course that year and it really turned in to a 50 plus year tradition that we're proud to do to both help Santa out and let children all around the world know where Santa is and the progress he's making."

Now...phone calls, FACEBOOK, twitter, and a website all help children find where Chris Kringle is on is special delivery flight. Norad helps those young people find Santa...but the tracking agency also helps Santa find his delivery points.

For 57 years...helping children find Santa around the globe...and helping Santa find his way to brighten Christmas mornings.

The website for tracking Santa is noradsanta.org.