Every year, excited children (and some excited adults) wait for Santa to come and deliver his presents. Different countries have different customs and beliefs about Santa, but a few things remain constant. Whether you think he wears red, green, rides a horse or takes a sleigh, we can all agree on one thing: Christmas is much jollier with Santa around!
This Christmas, there’s been an exciting update…
NORAD Santa Tracker is the result of a long-standing tradition coupled with modern technology. With this website, children and adults can track Santa’s journey around the globe.
From September 24th, you can log on to NORAD Santa Tracker and watch as Santa begins his pilgrimage from Lapland in Scandinavia. The website uses the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google’s Santa trackers to follow his sleigh route from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.
Our aerospace is always being monitored by the authorities for threats of attack, nuclear weapons and many other reasons. But for the Christmas period, they use their technology for good news instead of bad. They’re able to see when Santa leaves home and where he stops before his mission is complete.
It’s thought that Santa departs Lapland and begins his journey across the South Pacific. He makes 32 stops throughout islands in this region, quickly reaching New Zealand to deliver gifts to children there. After Australia, he reaches East Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan.
Following a speedy shift dropping gifts across Southeast Asia, he’ll deliver goods to the Middle East and Africa before treating the children of Europe. His final stops will be Canada, the USA, Mexico and Central and South America.
Yep, Santa moves at the speed of light, ensuring he reaches each destination by Christmas morning.
During a Christmas in Colorado Springs (USA) in 1955, Sears department store issued an advert for Santa’s Toyland, accidentally listing the incorrect phone number. Instead of calling the store, it went through to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). The officer on duty, Colonel Shoup, received several calls from children in the run-up to Christmas asking for Santa’s whereabouts.
To help them out, he used aerospace technology to track Santa’s location. The rest is history, and the Santa Claus tracker grew in popularity as the years went on.
Over 50 years later, Colonel Shoup’s granddaughter was working for Google and had a revolutionary idea. Why not use the same, now advanced, technology to track Santa’s movements on a dedicated website?
Simply log on to the official NORAD Santa Tracker website and patiently wait until December 24. You won’t be alone: Every year, around 9 million users access the website to get an indication of when their gifts might arrive.
Not only that, but 1,500 members of staff were employed by the NORAD Santa Tracker in 2018 to help answer calls from excited members of the public.
We hope this blog has answered your questions about the NORAD Santa Tracker, and that you’re all set to track his movements this festive season! Best of luck!
