- Christmastime tracking of Santa Claus’s whereabouts has been carried out by the joint US-Canadian military monitoring agency NORAD.
- Colonel Harry Shoup gave his team the order to check the radar for Santa’s location and notify the kids of it.
- A Facebook image shared by the group showed rows of individuals taking phone calls.
Christmastime tracking of Santa Claus’s whereabouts has been carried out by the joint US-Canadian military monitoring agency NORAD, which helps kids all around the world learn when his present-filled, reindeer-powered sleigh is expected to arrive in their town.
Back in January 1955, a Colorado newspaper ad sent kids in error to the military nerve center’s hotline, which is when the NORAD Santa tracker was first introduced.
Christmas custom
Colonel Harry Shoup, the director of operations for NORAD, gave his team the order to check the radar for Santa’s location and notify the kids of it.
In addition to controlling and warning aircraft and ships, NORAD also keeps an eye out for North Korean missile launches. 68 years later, NORAD is still keeping up its custom of operating a makeshift call center out of its Colorado headquarters to address urgent inquiries from kids.
A Facebook image shared by the group showed rows of individuals taking phone calls; some were dressed in uniform, while others had red Santa hats on. Leading American officials, including President Joe Biden and his spouse Jill Biden, took part in the festivities.
The tracker briefly lost signal earlier on Sunday, leaving kids in the Pacific area unaware of Santa’s precise location. Together with the International Space Station, the reindeer-drawn sleigh set out to explore Antarctica, southern Gaza, Africa, and Israel. Then, after loading up on almost 100,000 gifts every second, Santa went up via South America, destined for the United States.
Before continuing their voyage throughout the remainder of the country and delivering approximately 5.5 billion gifts globally, Kris Kringle and his reindeer were sighted entering US airspace near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at around 10:00 p.m. local time (0300 GMT).