A partial government shutdown started Saturday at Midnight which means hundreds of thousands of government employees have been furloughed (given time off without pay), but not NORAD and the “Santa Tracker”.

The Associated Press reports that the NORAD Tracks Santa - the annual Santa Tracker -  won’t be affected by the partial government shutdown as hundreds of volunteers still plan to take calls from kids about where Santa is, throughout Christmas Eve.

According to the Associated Press,

The military says the NORAD Tracks Santa won’t be affected by the government shutdown because it is run by volunteers Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado and is funded by the Department of Defense’s budget that was approved earlier this year.

Last year, Norad Tracks Santa took almost 126,000 phone calls (even in 2017!!!), as well as 18 Million website hits, and had 1.8 million Facebook followers and 179,000+ Twitter followers.

The A.P. says there’s around 1,500 volunteers, both military and civilians, who help track Santa, update social media and answer the 160 phone lines they have coming into NORAD Tracks Santa headquarters.

If your kids wants to call and find out where Santa is or even pass along a message… the number is 1-877-HI-NORAD.

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