Military posts in the United States and Canada have been “tracking” Santa Claus for 68 years

WASHINGTON — This year, the joint U.S.-Canadian military surveillance agency continued a decades-old Christmas tradition of tracking Santa's whereabouts, helping children around the world find out when a reindeer-drawn sleigh will arrive in town filled with presents.

3D interactive website www.noradsanta.org It showed Santa and his reindeer on a mock delivery route around the world, allowing users to click and learn more about different cities along the way.

The Santa locator provided by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) dates back to 1955, when a Colorado newspaper ad printed a phone number to connect children with Santa Claus, but mistakenly directed them to a direct line to the military nerve. center.

To avoid frustrating young children, NORAD's then-Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoop, ordered his staff to check the radar to see where Old Saint Nick might be and inform the children of its location.

When it's not spreading Christmas cheer, NORAD conducts air and sea warning and control operations, including monitoring North Korean missile launches, which may have been on Santa's mind this year when he departed, during the recent test of intercontinental ballistic missiles just a few days ago. .

Sixty-eight years later, NORAD continues its tradition of setting up a temporary call center at its Colorado headquarters to answer children's pressing questions.

A photo posted by the group on Facebook showed lines of people answering phones, some wearing uniforms and others wearing red Santa hats.

Some US dignitaries, specifically President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, joined the Christmas events.

“Tonight, the President and First Lady participated in North American Aerospace Defense Command communications with Santa, tracking conversations with children and families across the country,” the White House said in a statement.

Early Sunday, the tracker stopped working for a short period, leaving children in the Pacific region unaware of its exact location.

“Hey #ChristmasTrackers! We may be having some technical problems with our tracking map, but #Santa Claus is still flying! Next time I'm going to Fiji! – said the group operating the tracker on its Facebook page, and an hour later announced a solution the problem.

According to NORAD, Santa Claus began his journey with an out-of-this-world first stop: the International Space Station orbiting Earth.

The reindeer sleigh was also seen traveling through Israel, flying over southern Gaza, flying over Africa and heading south towards Palmer Station, a research facility in Antarctica.

Santa Claus then traveled across South America and headed to the United States, where he unloaded approximately 100,000 presents per second.

At approximately 22:00 local time (03:00 GMT), Kris Kringle and his reindeer were seen entering US airspace near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before continuing their journey across the rest of the country, with approximately 5.5 billion gifts delivered. all over the country. . world, and this number is constantly increasing.