The tradition of Santa Claus coming to our houses at night to deliver gifts has been going on for longer than we can remember but have you received your gift yet? Santa might have been busy delivering gifts to other children so far and he may will drop down your chimney tonight. But, the question is how will you know when he’s coming? Wishing that Santa Claus also had a tracking system like food delivery brands these days do? Well, fret not because a US-Canada Military Agency is monitoring his movements.
North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado or NORAD is the joint military command which is tasked with protecting US and Canadian airspace, however, it has helped us keep track of Santa Claus for the past 68 years by giving us real-time updates on Father Christmas. NORAD has launched a website i.e., noradsanta.org, social media sites and a mobile app loaded with games, movies, books and music.
You can use the tracker on the website and know about Santa’s whereabouts. According to news agency Associated Press, by late Sunday morning in the eastern US, Santa Claus had departed Bangkok and moved on to Burma, Tibet, China and Russia. He had distributed around 2 billion gifts till then.
NORAD’s chief spokesperson, US Air Force Col. Elizabeth Mathias, told AP that the military is tracking Santa with “the same technology we use every single day to keep North America safe.” Mathias added, “We’re able to follow the light from Rudolph’s red nose.”
Mathias further said that though NORAD has a good intelligence assessment of Santa’s sleigh, he does not file any flight plan. The military agency said that he may have some high-tech secrets such as artificial intelligence up his red sleeve this year to help guide his travels. AP quoted him as saying, “I don’t know yet if he’s using AI. I’ll be curious to see if our assessment of his flight this year shows us some advanced capabilities.”
How The Tradition Of Tracking Started
Back in 1955, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup — the commander on duty at NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, received a call from a child who called on a misprinted telephone number in a newspaper department store ad, while believing that she was calling Santa, as reported by AP.
Shoup decided to go with his witty side and told the caller that he was Santa. As more calls came in, he assigned a duty officer to keep answering them. That’s when the Santa-tracking tradition began.
NORAD now expects some 1,100 volunteers in order to help answer calls this year in a dedicated operations centre at Colorado Springs’ Peterson Space Force Base, ranging from command staff to people across the globe, AP reported.
Some top-level US dignitaries such as President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden joined in on the holiday action. The White House in a statement said, “This evening, the President and First Lady participated in the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracking calls with children and families across the country,” as reported by news agency AFP.