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There’s nothing more exciting on Christmas Eve than being able to see exactly where Santa Claus and his reindeer are on their one-night journey as he delivers presents across the globe.
For decades, children have been able to track the location of the red-suited man by checking in with the North American Aerospace Defence Command, also known as NORAD.
The tradition began in 1955, when a child mistakenly rang a Colorado military command asking to speak to Father Christmas after a local newspaper ran an advert by a department store containing a misprinted phone number.
Fortunately, Air Force Commander Harry Shoup who was manning the phones that Christmas Eve quickly realized the mistake and assured children that he was indeed Santa Claus.
As more calls came in that night, Commander Shoup assigned a duty officer to continue answering the phone, birthing a tradition that passed over to NORAD when it was formed in 1958. The organization has enlisted volunteers over the years to specifically manage the phone calls coming in on Christmas Eve.
NORAD also has an online tracker for children to watch Santa travel across the world in real-time. This year’s website launched on December 1, and it currently shows a village in the North Pole and a countdown to Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, the website will display Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Christmas Day ET.
Families can also download NORAD’s Santa Tracker app on both the Apple app store and Google Play store. Those who are interested in calling NORAD can use the phone number 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) on December 24 from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Christmas Day ET.
Google will also have its own version of a Santa tracker that will go live on December 24. Similar to NORAD’s tracker, Google has a countdown timer to Christmas Eve and various games available to play before Santa’s map goes live.
NORAD’s website has previously stated that its fighter jets have “intercepted Santa many, many times” over the past 65 years, adding: “When the jets intercept Santa, they tip their wings to say, ‘Hello Santa. Norad is tracking you again this year.’ Santa always waves.”
According to Norad, the “only logical conclusion” as to how Santa is able to traverse the globe in one night is that he “somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.”
“NORAD intelligence reports indicate that Santa does not experience time the way we do. His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa, it might last days, weeks, or even months,” the agency stated.