Santa is getting ready to come down from the North Pole and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has launched its 2019 Santa Tracker website. Today, through satellite systems, high-powered radars and jet fighters, NORAD tracks Santa Claus as he makes his Yuletide journey around the world.
The website, which tracks Santa’s journey across the globe, has a more mobile friendly website this year, according to a spokesperson at NORAD. You’ll also be able to see a stream of the “Santa Cam”, play fun games and enjoy other activities to delight both kids and adults.
The NORAD Santa Tracking website is available in eight different languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese.
NORAD’s Santa cams will show Santa’s travel videos starting at 12:01 a.m. MT on December 24. Starting at 4 a.m. MT that day, kids can call a live phone operator at 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to ask about Santa’s whereabouts, or if you own an Amazon Echo or any Alexa enabled device, you’ll be able to ask for Santa’s location through the NORAD Tracks Santa skill for Alexa. You can also track Santa on your mobile phone, through the official Windows 10 app.
Also on Christmas Eve, children can get Santa updates by sending an email to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com. A NORAD staff member will give you Santa’s last known location in a return email.
This year marks the 65th anniversary of NORAD’s Santa Tracking task, a tradition that began due to a happy accident. NORAD started tracking Santa in the mid-1950s after a Sears and Roebuck newspaper advertisement instructed kids to call Santa directly but misprinted the phone number which was actually the number for the on-duty crew commander at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, the predecessor to NORAD. Thankfully Colonel Harry Shoup rose to the occasion, assigned a couple of airmen to help answer the phone and Ho-Ho-Ho’ed their way through to the delight of the children who called.
From that accidental beginning, the idea of contacting Santa and later, tracking his journey, expanded. Today, the NORAD Tracks Santa website receives almost 9 million unique visitors each year from 200 countries and territories. Volunteers field more than 140,000 calls to the Santa hotline and respond to 12,000 emails.
This tradition has carried on for 65 years and continues to grow every year. More than 1,250 Canadian and American uniformed personnel and DOD civilians volunteer their time on December 24th to answer the thousands of phone calls and emails that flood in from around the world.
Visit: www.NORADSANTA.ORG
Merry Christmas from all the helpful elves at ACTSmart IT.
