Track Santa’s Sleigh Ride

This year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks the old guy and shows what he’s up to by way of the Internet or mobile devices, with a website available in eight languages. Santa Claus and his reindeer are en route to homes across the planet throughout Christmas Eve.

NORAD made a decision to run with the idea, and now has hundreds of volunteers working around the clock, tracking Santa’s every move.

EADS’ Battle Control Center (BCC) will monitor Santa constantly as he travels across the eastern USA delivering toys and gifts.

So how exactly is NORAD able to track Santa?

NORAD s involvement began 60 years ago when a wrong telephone number printed in a newspaper advertisement resulted in children calling for Santa.

“Captain Shoop picked up the phone in 1955 and played along, and we’ve been tracking Santa ever since”, Captain Miller explained.

The calls instead went to the CONAD Air Defense Command Center, and Colonel Harry Shoup told his staff to give all children who called in a “current location” for Santa Claus.

You can check out the Santa Tracker here: www.noradsanta.org or follow along on Twitter.

Most of these contacts happen during the 25 hours from 2 a.m. on December 24 until 3 a.m. MST on December 25.

Log on to the NORAD Santa Tracker website and watch Saint Nick get ready for the big trip, rand the Santa-curious may speak with live operators who will dish on the big guy’s coordinates: 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).

The command centre’s Defense Support Program satellites use an infrared sensor to detect heat signatures from Rudolph’s nose to provide more accurate tracking of the sleigh.