NORAD mission-ready with new Santa tracking app

Santa won’t be stopped by the pandemic. He’ll be delivering presents on Christmas Eve, just like he always does, and a team of volunteers will be tracking his global location, just like they do every year. Although a reduced number of volunteers will be available to talk to children directly, NORAD Tracks Santa has come up with several innovative ways to share Santa’s whereabouts.

NORAD has been tracking Santa’s movement since 1955 when Colonel Harry Shoup answered the first phone call on a top-secret line. A mother had seen a SEARS advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper and dialed the number for her little girl to call and talk to Santa. In a twist of fate, the advertisement accidentally listed one wrong digit in the phone number, so instead of calling the local SEARS Department Store, the number rang into the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), the predecessor of NORAD, also based in Colorado Springs.

A father himself, Colonel Shoup didn’t have the heart to tell the little girl the truth, so he played along, answered her questions and instructed his staff to check the radar for Santa’s location throughout the night. After speaking with the mother and determining how she got the top-secret phone number in the first place, he instructed the CONAD staff to answer the rest of the calls that started to come in. He even called a local radio station so more children could join in on the holiday fun. His staff spent the rest of the night answering calls from other excited and eager children, and an American holiday tradition was born. This year marks the 65th anniversary.

According to US Navy Lieutenant Ricky Rodriguez, a NORTHCOM Media Operations Officer for NORAD & USNORTHCOM Public Affairs, “normally, nearly 1,500 Canadian and American uniformed personnel, Department of Defense civilians and members of the community volunteer their time on December 24 to answer an average of 150,000 phone calls and emails that flood in from around the world.”

But as with everything this year, COVID-19 forced the dedicated program staff to innovate. On December 1st they released an app that allows families to track Santa’s whereabouts. “You can even enable ALEXA to track Santa for you,” Lt. Rodriguez explained. “This year, our call center will be following COVID mitigation procedures and manning will be reduced. But anyone can call in, visit our website www.noradsanta.org, download the NORAD Tracks Santa Claus app (links on the website) or call 1-877-HI-NORAD to receive an update on Santa's location. His location is updated every 15 minutes on Christmas Eve (December 24).”

According to the NORAD Tracks Santa website, they track Santa because: “24 hours a day, 365 days a year, NORAD tracks everything that flies in and around North America in defense of our homeland. Homeland defense is our #1 priority. On December 24, we have the very special mission of also tracking Santa using the same systems we use every day: satellite systems, high-powered radar and jet fighters.”

“Santa travels at the speed of starlight across the world, but when he enters the USA and Canada, he slows down so he can be accompanied by American and Canadian military planes,” Lt. Rodriguez said.

Thank goodness there are some things that 2020 can’t ruin: children young and old can still track Santa.

Learn more about the history of how this annual tradition got started on a special 2014 Colorado Experience presentation: