NORAD monitors Santa Claus’s every action, allowing children to track him via website, app, or phone call.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado is diligently monitoring Santa’s journey as children worldwide eagerly anticipate his arrival on Christmas. Equipped with radar, sensors, aircraft, and a festive mindset, they are providing updates on Santa’s sleigh movements since his departure from the North Pole. These updates are being shared with children, allowing them to track Santa’s progress.
NORAD is a joint military command responsible for protecting US and Canadian airspace, but it also has a happy side. It has launched its noradsanta.org website, social media sites and a mobile app full of games, movies, books and music.
Late on Christmas Eve in Thailand, late Sunday morning in the eastern United States, the tracker announced that Santa had left Bangkok and moved on to Burma, Tibet, China and Russia, giving out nearly 2 billion gifts so far on his travels.
NORAD’s findings could not be independently confirmed.
The military is tracking Santa “with the same technology we use every single day to keep North America safe,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, NORAD’s chief spokeswoman. “We can follow the light from Rudolph’s red nose.”
Mathias says that while NORAD has a good intellectual estimate of his sleigh’s capabilities, Santa isn’t making a flight plan and this year may be keeping high-tech secrets up his red sleeve to aid his travels — maybe even artificial intelligence.
“I don’t know if he uses AI yet,” said Mathias. “I’m curious to see if our evaluation of his flight this year shows us advanced capabilities.”
In 1955, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup—the acting commander of NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command—received a call from a child who dialed a phone number misspelled in a newsagent’s ad, thinking he was calling Santa Claus.
A quick-thinker, Shoup quickly told the caller that he was Santa Claus, and as more calls came in, he ordered the dispatcher to continue answering. And the tradition of tracking down Santa began.
NORAD expects about 1,100 volunteers to help answer calls this year at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.
“It’s a bucket list item for some people,” Mathias says, calling the activity center “probably the most festive place on December 24.”
The activity center is open on Christmas Eve until midnight MST. Anyone can call 1-877 HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) to speak directly to NORAD staff members who will provide Santa’s exact location.
