Track Santa via the NORAD website or app. (Provided photo — Diane Chase)

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa since a child mistakenly called a classified Colorado Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center (CADCOC) military base after reversing two numbers from a 1955 Sears Roebuck store advertisement. The ad in The Gazette, a Colorado Springs newspaper, instructed children to call ME 2-6681 to speak to Santa’s helpers. Instead of getting a Sears catalog employee, the child talked to Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, who assured parents and child that the CADCOC was always on watch to make sure the skies remained safe for air travel, reindeer and all.

One mistake created the Santa Tracker. There are some discrepancies in the creation of the Santa Tracker, such as there are variations in Santa’s origin story. In 1955, the Cold War was underway and the United States Air Force was only eight years old, following the Santa photo call, CADCOC (a predecessor to NORAD) sent notices that they were keeping the skies safe for Santa and, subsequently, everyone else. The public relations campaign for safe skies and Santa grew to regular updates from various command posts.

NORAD is a Canadian/United States bi-national organization defending homeland security through aerospace control, maritime warnings and aerospace warnings for North America. As technologies advance, so do NORAD’s duties to include man-made objects in space and detect, validate and warn of any attack against North America.

Santa Tracker is still operated by NORAD with the help of volunteers and sponsors. The one-night-a-year operation allows anyone around the globe to speak to or locate Santa. According to a NORAD fact sheet, each Dec. 24, over 1,000 military and civilian volunteers answer more than 130,000 phone calls and 10,000 emails at the Colorado Peterson Airbase “Santa Tracker” Headquarters. The NoradSanta.org website has received over 15 million unique website visitors from 200 countries and territories.

The Santa Tracker website is available in nine different languages: French, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian and English. Featuring North Pole Village, games, recipes, crafts and other holiday traditions. There is an online library as well as sleigh stats. Apparently, the sleigh’s estimated weight at take-off is 75,000 GM (gumdrops) with 60,000 tons of gifts.

I get overwhelmed with holiday cheer and can be a bit Scroogey. Even if the Santa Tracker started out as a way to promote our defense department, it is still a nice way to capture some childhood joy. You may not be able to reach the “merry ol elf” himself, but a thousand volunteers will be available to answer questions if you choose to call 1-877-HI-NORAD. There is even a “NORAD Tracks Santa” app. I hope whoever answers the phone reminds those kids to get to bed. Enjoy.