NORAD helps kids track Santa

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 24, 2007 at 11:19 a.m.
Updated December 24, 2007 at 8:23 p.m.

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Photo by Google Earth

As they have for a half-century, hundreds of millions of eager kids are tracking the Christmas Eve arrival of Santa's airborne sleigh today with the help of the military sky-watchers in Colorado Springs. Above, a snapshot of Santa arriving in the U.S.A.

As they have for a half-century, hundreds of millions of eager kids are tracking the Christmas Eve arrival of Santa's airborne sleigh today with the help of the military sky-watchers in Colorado Springs.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has mobilized a record 1,000 volunteers to field thousands of calls and e-mails from children eager to pinpoint Santa's current position.

The command logged nearly a billion visits last year at its Santa-tracking Web site — www.noradsanta.org — and got 435,000 phone calls.

"We expect to go well over a 1 billion hits this year," said Army Sgt. Gail Braymen.

"The two most popular questions are: 'Where is Santa now?' and 'When will Santa get to where I am?'"

Available in six languages, the site allows kids to track a global map of Santa's trek and three-dimensional aerial images of Santa and his sleigh using software provided by search-engine giant Google. Children can also explore a virtual Santa's Village.

This morning, the Santa Cam showed St. Nick's sleigh, led by Rudolph's beaming nose, skimming past India's Taj Mahal.

"Santa has not encountered any difficulty so far during his journey around the world," a NORAD Navy petty officer said on the Web site. "These images were captured in India, at the famous Taj Mahal.

"Santa and his team of reindeer are making very good time and are actually a few minutes ahead of schedule," the officer said.

The American-Canadian alliance employs billions of dollars of air-defense gadgetry — radar, satellites, "Santa Cams" and jet fighters — to track the jolly old elf.

The satellites can use their heat-seeking technology to track Rudolph's glowing nose, the NORAD Web site says.

"NORAD Santa Cams are ultra-cool high-tech high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many places around the world," the Web site says, adding that "NORAD only uses these cameras once a year - Christmas Eve.

"The cameras capture images of Santa and the reindeer as they make their journey around the world."

NORAD officials stress that it doesn't cost taxpayers a dime, because all the work is done by volunteers and the Web site is sponsored by corporate donations.

The program was started by accident in 1955 when a mistaken "Santa hot line" listing in a newspaper department store advertisement directed kids to call the air-defense center's emergency "red phone" during the height of the Cold War.

Deep inside the Cheyenne Mountain fortress, Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up the phone and heard a tiny voice greet "Santa" and begin to recite his Christmas wish list.

"He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, 'Hey, you're not Santa,' " Shoup recalled in a 1999.

Realizing an explanation of the boy's misguided call would be lost, Shoup launched into a deep, jolly voice and replied, "Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?"

Satisfied, the youngster finished his list and added: "And Santa, could you bring my mommy something very nice because she's been very good."

At least one of Shoup's duty officers thought the stress of shielding the nation from nuclear annihilation had taken its toll on their commander, when he heard Shoup say, "Ho, ho, ho!" into the emergency phone.

Shoup quickly set up another phone and assigned an officer to take phone calls while working to fix the problem — and NORAD's Santa center was born.

Fifty-two years later, kids can call the Santa-tracking center toll-free at (877)446-6723 or e-mail: noradtrackssanta@gmail.com

The Gazette of Colorado Springs contributed to this report.

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