After 70 years, there’s a new way to track Santa through NORAD

WASHINGTON — For the last seven decades, a joint United States and Canadian operation has tracked Santa as he delivers gifts across the world. This year, there’s a new way to track him. 

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been monitoring the skies for threats since the Cold War. While Santa is no threat, NORAD has dutifully taken on the task of tracking his progress every Christmas. 

Users can now use the program’s website to make a call, making it easier for those without a phone or for those outside of North America to call in and track Santa. 

Over the last 70 years, hundreds of volunteers take calls to 1-877-HI-NORAD on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight Mountain Standard Time.

Virtual translation services are also available to support more than 200 languages via the call center. Anyone calling after midnight MT will hear an Interactive Voice Response system to track Santa, according to NORAD. 

NORAD’s website is already up and running, getting ready for tracking Santa come his big day. Along with the tracker, families can access holiday music tracks, NORAD’s YouTube which features videos about Santa and the command, shop merch and play games.

See what Santa’s up to here.

The tradition started in 1955 when NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, was on the lookout for any sign of a possible nuclear attack from the then-Soviet Union. NORAD says a child mistakenly called the combat operations center and asked to speak to Santa Claus. The commander on duty, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup didn’t want to disappoint the child, so he ordered staffers to start tracking Santa and take calls from children.

The story goes that the first phone call was either the result of a misprint or a misdial of a number included in a Sears advertisement in the Colorado Springs newspaper encouraging children to call Santa.

The legend developed into the first call coming into a dedicated hotline that connected the command with a general in case of an attack. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, saying a call to a public phone line was more probable and noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.

In a 1999 interview with The Associated Press, Shoup recalled playing along once he figured out what was happening, telling the first caller, “Ho, ho, ho, I am Santa.”

“The crew was looking at me like I had lost it,” he recalled.

He said he told his staff what was happening and told them to play along, too.

It’s not clear what day the first call came in, but by Dec. 23 of that first year, The Associated Press reported that CONAD was tracking Santa.

CONAD soon became North American Aerospace Defense Command. It used to operate inside nearby Cheyenne Mountain. A network of tunnels had been blasted out of the mountain’s hard granite so NORAD officers could survive a nuclear attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.