NORAD keeps an eye in the Sky for Santa since 1955
- Sophie Hunter
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
North Pole- Happy Holidays readers! Nothing like spending time with family and friends, celebrating the holidays, and good luck for everyone who must watch the Hallmark channel on repeat. It’s well known, around the holiday season, that Google has a popular Santa tracker. However, did you know about the one from the American and Canadian government? The NORAD Santa Tracker!
Who & what is NORAD?
The Northern American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, is a bi-national organization between Canada and the United States. This organization pledges to defend their domestic airspaces and maritime areas from any threats against the two countries. Members of NORAD work around the clock, every second of every day, tracking all activity including space liftoffs, transparent communication if an act of war comes to either country, and keeping the skies and seas safe for everyone.
Originally known as CONAD (The Continental Air Defense Command) opened in the year 1947 as a separate entity from the United States Airforce. CONAD was primarily used as defensive across the United States throughout the durations of the Korean and Cold war. The United States had discussed the concept of a defensive partnership with Canada in 1940, between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King. After years of collaboration and extensive discussion, CONAD, was officially ratified and signed on May 12th, 1957, later renamed NORAD in 1958.
HISTORY
According to the official NORAD Santa tracking website; “NORAD's predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), began tracking Santa in 1955. NORAD replaced CONAD in 1958 and took over the mission of tracking Santa's flight around the world, and they have been tracking Santa every year since!” (The NORAD Santa tracker) If you want a deeper look as to how it came to be, the official NORAD Santa tracker YouTube channel released a storybook visual animated short on just that. I recommend watching it, but to sum it up; a local Sears catalogue from Colorado Springs, put up an ad for children to call Santa on certain phone numbers. One of these numbers was misprinted and just so happened to be the unregistered number for the official CONAD operations center. One child called the number, desperate to hear Santa over his phone. Colonel Shoup (Sh-ah-u-p) of CONAD took calls from a bright red telephone and was utterly baffled how a small child was able to get the number. The child simply asked, where was Santa? Would CONAD be tracking him? The Colonel responded, “Of Course,” hung up, and immediately directed his staff to answer where Santa was. (The United States Department of Veteran Affairs)
How do they track the 'Man in Red'?
Santa Claus, the second predominant figure for Christmas, flies all over the world each year. Travelling through airspaces is basically his job, and thankfully, Santa has not been deemed a domestic threat by NORAD. Looking at the website itself, NORAD claims to use satellite technology, with a 49-satellite network spanning over the two countries, to attempt and pinpoint Santa’s exact take off time from the North Pole. Even Canadian NORAD pilots take off from Newfoundland to welcome from Canada. Santa has been intercepted before, but the pilots know to give a wave, assure Santa that they’re there to help, and are told by Santa that he is always happy to see them. The official NORAD Santa tracker website is full of things to do.
If you happen to know anyone who would be interested, check out the NORAD Santa Tracker with the link below in sources! If you’re curious about the website, and just want a rundown, I’ve written a full guide at the end of the article. Overall, I loved having the chance to write about this. I have never heard of it before but now knowing the history and seeing the website for myself, I think it is a very sweet tradition done for the holidays. Thanks for reading everyone, from all of us at The Dean Daily have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Sources:
NORAD Website Guide
WARNING! If you do not want to be spoiled, please do not read the upcoming section. This is a guide I have written out for the whole website. It is a lot more fun to explore it on its own! For anyone wanting to check it out, type NORAD Santa tracker into your browser! If you even feel stuck, come back here to look over the guide. With warnings out of the way, here is the official guide to the website!
For first time visitors, I recommend the building on the far right of the page. This is the official NORAD HQ! You can look at the official information on the history Santa Tracker, what technology they use, and a fun QnA section with the information and answers provided from the official history of the NORAD Santa tracker.
The smaller building on the back right, and next to the big candy cane pole, is the arcade! There are lots of holiday themed arcade games, one example is Hyper Hockey (Air Hockey): drag the puck with your cursor and see how many games you win. Finally there’s 3D Santa Jump: use your cursor to help guide Santa up colored platforms but only bounce on the color of a ball Santa’s bouncing on. My high score is 188, see if you can do better. Each game is being revealed daily throughout the month of December. So be sure to stop by every day if you want something fun to do! There’s even an activity book on the side, one of them is the live Santa tracker feed for December 24th. Although I didn’t check them all out, they seem like fun. (Except the ChatGPT and OpenAI one, I personally do not support AI of any kind.)
Below the arcade building is the theatre. Clicking on the building redirects you to the official NORAD Santa tracker YouTube channel. With videos as far back as 10 years ago, so 2015, there are so many things to watch. Holiday greetings from employees, yearly videos of official operations from each December 24th, and an animated short with storybook visuals about how the NORAD Santa tracking came to be! I watched the whole thing, and man it was very cute and historically fascinating how one small thing created one huge difference.
Just next door is a music stage, featuring an official NORAD Christmas playlist. All the music tracks are from official United States and Canadian military bands like the US Air Force Academy Band, the Naden Band from the Royal Canadian Navy, and more. This was a neat touch, and the whole playlist is a great listen.
To the right of the music hall is a library, featuring three short story books and the activity book mentioned earlier. The first one gives a brief history about Santa, both historical and religious, including a famous newspaper clipping from 1897 with a letter asking if Santa Clause is real, and just underneath is the editor’s response to the question. The second book is a hypothesized timeline on the history of Santa’s sleigh; dating all the way back to its first sighting in 343 A.D. and official schematics as to how it works with blueprints underneath. Take notes on this, it may be a good idea for your next final.
If you love, or haven fall in love, with the NORAD Santa tracker, you’ll love the last stop on this trip! The large building on the far right is the official NORAD Santa tracker gift shop Once you click on it, you are redirected a separate page dedicated to the store. Alongside a little information on the homepage, you can browse merchandise like adult and youth t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats showing off the logo.
