North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, tracks Santa’s sleigh ride across the world for a 70th year. © Screen grab, NORAD
The joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command headquartered in Colorado tracked Santa’s Yuletide sleigh ride overnight for a 70th year.
Santa Claus drove his reindeer-powered sleigh over rooftops around the world beginning on Wednesday, delivering gifts to millions of children in a magic Christmas Eve ritual that North American air defense officials began tracking 70 years ago.
A tradition dating back to the Cold War era of 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks Santa’s overnight journey around the world, starting from his home base at the North Pole.
NORAD, a joint US-Canadian military command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, has provided images and updates on Santa’s worldwide journey for seven decades, along with its main task of monitoring air defenses and issuing aerospace and maritime warnings.
But the details of Santa’s mission are known only to him.
“NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route, which means we cannot predict where or when he will arrive at your house,” a senior NORAD official said in a press statement.
An error that birthed a tradition
The Santa tracker tradition originated from a 1955 misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper, which attempted to print the telephone number of a department store that children could call to speak with Santa. But the printed number went instead to what was then known as Continental Air Defense Command.
An understanding officer took the children’s calls and assured them that Santa was airborne and on schedule to deliver presents to good girls and boys, flying aboard his reindeer-powered sleigh.
According to its website, NORAD detects Santa’s liftoff with its polar radar network, then follows his journey with the same satellites used to warn of any possible missile launches aimed at North America. As soon as Santa’s lead reindeer, Rudolph, switches on his shiny red nose, military personnel can zero in on his location using the satellites’ infrared sensors.
US President Donald Trump appeared to be following NORAD’s Santa tracker on Wednesday as he sat by a Christmas tree at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, fielding telephone calls from children around the country. As he spoke to one youngster from Pennsylvania, Trump said, “So Santa right now is in Copenhagen, Denmark, but he’s heading toward our country. What would you like from Santa?”
Speaking to another caller, Trump jokingly explained the rationale for tracking Santa in terms of national security, saying, “We want to make sure he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa.”
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)