For almost 70 years now, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) has been annually “tracking” and live-streaming Santa Claus’s sleigh ride from the North Pole.
The tracking starts at 02:00 Eastern Time. Over the next 24 hours, you can follow Santa’s whereabouts on television, online, and through the dedicated NORAD app. Interestingly, this tradition began in 1955 with… a mistake. But let’s go through it step by step.
Call Santa Claus
The pre-Christmas season of 1955 was supposed to be exceptionally busy for the staff at Sears department stores in Colorado. Managers at the Colorado Springs store came up with an interesting idea to promote their store using a Santa Claus figure and… a telephone number. On December 19, 1955, a fresh issue of the local newspaper featured an advertisement for the Sears Roebuck department store. In the newspaper cutout that has survived to this day, there is an illustration of Santa Claus along with the description:
“Hey, kids! Call me directly… Call my personal phone, and I’ll talk to you personally anytime day or night.”
The announcement was accompanied by a phone number that would connect interested individuals directly to the store’s hotline, where employees were supposed to play the role of Santa Claus, promoting their store’s range. However, on that day, no one called Sears Roebuck. All because of a… printing error that resulted in the wrong number appearing in the newspaper. Changing one digit led to children calling… the top-secret number of the commander of a government organization that tracked, among other things, the movement of Soviet bombers that could potentially carry nuclear weapons.
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Santa Clauses unwittingly
When the phone first rang on Harry Shoup’s desk, the Chief Operations Officer of CONAD (later renamed NORAD), there was uncertainty and concern. This phone call could only mean one thing: Soviet atomic bombs were directed at the United States. When Shoup, instead of the expected voice of a military personnel, heard the piercing voice of a boy asking about Santa Claus, he was puzzled. But the officer assumed it was someone playing a prank.
Details of the events that day were later provided by Terry Van Keuren, the daughter of Shoup. She explained that her father initially grumbled into the phone but quickly realized it was no joke. When he asked one boy to have his parents come to the phone, things fell into place. It turned out to be a mistake unrelated to anyone’s prank. However, calls continued to pour into the military hotline throughout the day and night. Shoup asked one of the pilots working that day at the Colorado Springs base to take on the role of Santa Claus and answer the incoming calls.
What is NORAD?
NORAD is a binational American-Canadian military organization responsible for aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning to protect North America. The agency helps ensure the air sovereignty of North America by providing warnings of potential missile and airborne threats..
The military organization has a 65-year history of “tracking” Santa using satellite systems, powerful radars, and fighter jets.
In frequently asked questions on its official website, NORAD claims to be the only organization in the world with the tools and expertise to track Santa. The post states, “While the tradition of tracking Santa started entirely by accident, NORAD continues to track Santa. We are the only organization that has the technology, qualifications, and people for this. And we love it!”
What about tracking Santa’s sleigh?
The mystery of the connection between NORAD/CONAD and Santa Claus has been unraveled. However, this still doesn’t explain why the North American Aerospace Defense Command “tracks” and shares information about the whereabouts of the bearded resident of the North Pole. The story is almost anecdotal.
On December 24, when Harry Shoup entered the main room at the Colorado Springs base, where in the middle stood a huge glass table with a contour map of the world, under which the light could be turned on and off, symbolizing the location of American and Soviet aircraft, he noticed something unusual on it. With a washable marker typically used by military personnel to mark important information on glass surfaces—either objects or their directions—one of the staff members had drawn Santa’s sleigh as a Christmas joke.
Harry Shoup, still remembering the recent events with the unsuccessful advertising and children’s calls in Colorado Springs, decided to play a prank and called a local radio station. He officially introduced himself, explained that he was the commander of the NORAD base, and reported… that he had just detected Santa Claus’s sleigh on the radar. Radio journalists were thrilled, and information about the change in the airborne position of the cheerful gift-bringer became the most anticipated in the radio broadcast.
In the following years, both the media and the Missile Defense Command were already preparing accordingly. A year later, American press agencies awaited information about Santa Claus, reported from the base in Colorado Springs. In the subsequent years, more and more military personnel engaged in the festivities. For example, on December 24, 1960, the northern command post of NORAD in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, provided regular updates on the position of Santa’s sleigh, classified as “undoubtedly friendly” objects. In the evening, NORAD announced that the sleigh had made an emergency landing on the ice of Hudson Bay, where, reportedly, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) interceptor was directed for investigation. The public was informed that the pilot found Santa Claus, who was tending to the front leg of one of his reindeer. Subsequently, the RCAF aircraft accompanied him until he could resume his journey.
In 1981, NORAD decided to launch a hotline accessible to everyone, where people could call to get real-time information about Santa’s flight. Thus, the tradition was born and has been preserved to this day.
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From one phone call to thousands of people
The Santa Claus tracking campaign became an international phenomenon. Its worldwide popularity surged in 1997 when NORAD launched a dedicated website, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. The next breakthrough occurred in 2007 when Google intervened in the initiative. On one hand, they provided their network traffic analysis systems, improving the coordination of NORAD volunteers. On the other hand, they integrated information from the American office into Google Maps and Google Earth. Since 2007, it has been possible to track Santa Claus’s sleigh in two and three dimensions using widely available tools.
In 2008, the project already involved 1,275 people. As Joyce Frankovis, the public relations specialist who led the Santa Claus tracking program at NORAD, reported at the time, there would have been even more of them, ‘if there was more space for them.’ At that point, the team had 100 phones and 25 computers, allowing them to handle almost 70,000 calls, video calls, and over 6,000 emails from more than 200 countries around the world.
This is what the place looks like where volunteers are holding a search for Santa Claus:
In 2014, NORAD received over 100,000 phone calls. By 2018, they managed to increase the number to 1,500 working volunteers. In December 2019, 8.9 million people visited noradsanta.org, the campaign’s homepage for tracking Santa’s sleigh.
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Santa Claus is “hard to track”
As reported by the noradsanta.org website and mentioned by Joyce Frankovis, tracking Santa’s sleigh is a challenging task due to its high speed and, as Frankovis notes, the uncertainty and mystery surrounding its route. It turns out that Santa Claus doesn’t fly the same path every year. For tracking, NORAD employs sophisticated systems to identify airborne targets, ranging from radars and satellites to fighter jets launched from ground bases.
“NORAD utilizes four high-tech systems for tracking Santa—radar, satellites, Santa Claus cameras, and fighter jets. The tracking of Santa begins with NORAD’s radar system, known as the North Warning System. This powerful radar system consists of 47 installations along the northern border of North America. In the days leading up to Christmas, NORAD consistently monitors the radar systems for signs that Santa Claus has departed from the North Pole.
When the radar detects that Santa has set out on his journey, we employ the second detection system. Satellites placed in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 32,300 km from Earth are equipped with infrared sensors that can detect heat. Interestingly, Rudolph’s bright red nose emits an infrared signature that allows our satellites to identify Rudolph and Santa.
The third tracking system is the network of Santa Cams. We started using it in 1998, the same year we introduced our Santa Claus tracker on the Internet. Santa Cams are modern, technologically advanced, and fast digital cameras pre-installed in various locations around the world. NORAD uses these cameras only once a year, on Christmas Eve. The cameras capture photos and videos of Santa Claus and his reindeer as they travel the world.
The fourth system consists of fighter jets. Canadian NORAD fighter pilots on CF-18 aircraft intercept and greet Santa Claus in North America. In the United States, American fighter pilots on F-15 and F-16 jets enjoy flying alongside Santa Claus and his famous reindeer,” as stated by NORAD.
Today, you can track the Santa Claus campaign on social media, YouTube, the noradsanta.org website, as well as through Android and iOS apps. In addition to the special map, the apps feature games and interesting facts about Santa Claus and NORAD.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
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