Santa Claus riding on sleigh. Photo (for illustration purposes, obviously): iStock/Wave Break Media
Did you know you can track Santa’s location ahead of Christmas as he makes his way around the globe? True story!
Santa allegedly begins delivering presents on 24 December, and he has only one day to trek across the entire planet.
Here’s how to ‘track’ Santa’s live location online.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) might be a serious binational military command responsible for aerospace control, but once a year, it also tracks Santa.
In fact, Norad – and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (Conad) – has been tracking Mr Claus’s yearly trip for more than sixty years.
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Norad said: “While our mission of aerospace warning and control, and maritime warning continues 24/7/365, we’re gearing up for our additional mission on 24 Dec… tracking Santa”.
The yearly tradition to track Santa Claus began in 1955, all thanks to a hopeful young child who dailed the wrong number.
When Norad was still Conad, US Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup took a call, only to find a child on the other end of the line, asking for Santa.
How did this happen, I hear you ask?
A Sears ad released in 1955 invited children to get in touch with Santa by ‘calling him direct’.
“Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time, day or night, or come in and visit me at Sears Toyland”.
Thus, Norad’s tradition to track Santa started when one child misdialed the number, and accidentally found himself talking to a Colonel at a top-secret US facility.
Colonel Harry Shoup, who took the initial call, took it one step further and made Santa accessible to other kiddos (of all ages, of course).
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To this day, Norad still tracks Santa Claus and his reindeer every year, and it has now become a beloved Christmas tradition for families worldwide.
Moreover, children in the United States can still call 1-877 HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) and talk to Norad staff about Santa’s exact location.
Are you curious to see where Santa is right now? At the time of publishing, Santa had just passed over North Korea and was making his way towards China.
Follow his movements on Norad’s Santa tracker.
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