NORAD Tracks Santa On Christmas Eve – Here’s How It All Started

There is nothing more fun on Christmas Eve than watching little kids getting excited about a visit from Santa Claus. For a few years now, you have been able to track the flight of old Saint Nick on the official NORAD website as he makes his gift run across the world.

If you want to watch Santa Claus in real time and get your kiddos in bed at a decent hour because you want to throw back some egg nog, check out their website. You can watch Santa hitting all the countries in the world and tell your beasties when he is getting close so they can get in bed and dream of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

So why does NORAD, which watches the nation's skies, keep watch on Santa's Christmas Eve ride?

It all started back in November of 1955, when the phone rang inside the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations center rang. At that time, the Cold War was raging and the nation’s air defense was priority one. When the colonel in charge answered the phone, it was a child who asked to speak to Santa Clause.

The colonel thought it was a joke and was angry, but when the child started crying he felt bad and asked to speak to the child’s mother. The mother told the colonel that they had seen a phone number in the newspaper for kids to call and speak to Santa. It was the CONAD number and the phone started blowing up.

The ad was eventually changed, but the colonel had servicemen answer and speak to the children who called as Santa. That Christmas Eve, CONAD released an ad in newspapers around the country telling kids that it was tracking Santa on their radar.

NORAD took over the Santa Tracker in 1958, and continues to watch out for Santa each Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!