Government shutdown will not impact tracking of Santa on Christmas Eve
Adults arguing over a $5 billion border wall may have caused the government to shut down, but to the joy of children, one key federal department will continue to function: the one that tracks Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve.
His journey is tracked every year through a Santa Cam in a program run by the defense department’s NORAD Tracks Santa Program.
NORAD — The North American Aerospace Defense Command — put out a tweet reassuring boys and girls that the important government function will continue — despite adults fighting over border wall funding.
The tweet: “In the event of a government shutdown, NORAD will continue with its 63-year tradition of NORAD Tracks Santa on Dec. 24.”
Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by about 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible.
NORAD is a binational U.S. and Canadian Command charged with aerospace and maritime warning and aerospace control of North America as well as monitoring aerospace activity globally.
But during the holidays, they have the supplementary mission of tracking Santa as he travels around the world, 22,000 feet above the Earth.
The tradition began in 1955 when a local advertisement directed children to call Santa — only the number was misdialed. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the crew commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, the predecessor to NORAD.
On duty that night was Colonel Harry Shoup, who has come to be known as the “Santa Colonel.”
Shoup received numerous calls that night and rather than hanging up, he had his operators find the location of Santa Claus and reported it to every child who phoned in that night.
The program has grown through the years and evolved to make tracking easier with the use of technology. To track Santa, visit www.noradsanta.org or call 1-877-HI-NORAD,
This year’s NORAD Tracks Santa kicked off Dec. 1, with a more mobilefriendly website, social media channels, “Santa Cam” streaming video and a call center that will operate around the clock on Christmas Eve.
Volunteers will join NORAD on Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs to help track Santa’s journey.
Each year, the NORAD Tracks Santa Website receives nearly nine million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers receive more than 140,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children around the globe.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Mountain Standard Time — or 2:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time — on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa make preparations for his flight
Beginning at 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, trackers worldwide can speak with a live phone operator to inquire as to Santa’s whereabouts.
Since regular operations protecting North America must also continue, volunteers take two-hour shifts for a 23-hour period. It is so joyous reporting on Santa, however, that most volunteers stay longer, a NORAD spokesman has said.
NORAD officials have said some of the answers to popular questions: Santa’s sleigh is propelled by ninereindeer power; the fuel is hay, oats and carrots; and its maximum speed is “faster than starlight.” And the sleigh weighs 75,000 gumdrops.
One of the most common questions is, “How can Santa travel the globe in one night?”
The answer to that, a NORAD spokesman has said, is that Santa experiences time differently than we do. So our day may be a week or month to him.
Once Santa leaves the North Pole, his trip starts at the International Date Line and moves west, according to NORAD.
A spokesman has explained the satellites used to track Santa have infrared sensors that can see heat and so Rudolph’s red nose is easily spotted.