{"id":76432,"date":"2024-12-24T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/12\/24\/norad-santa-tracker-started-in-the-cold-war-now-its-a-holiday-staple\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:46:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:46:03","slug":"norad-santa-tracker-started-in-the-cold-war-now-its-a-holiday-staple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2024\/12\/24\/norad-santa-tracker-started-in-the-cold-war-now-its-a-holiday-staple\/","title":{"rendered":"NORAD Santa tracker started in the Cold War. Now it\u2019s a holiday staple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus<\/a> as he sweeps across the earth, delivering presents and defying time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa\u2019s location. Millions more follow online in nine languages<\/a>, from English to Japanese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens for potential threats<\/a>, such as last year\u2019s Chinese spy balloon<\/a>. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs are fielding questions like, \u201cWhen is Santa coming to my house?\u201d and, \u201cAm I on the naughty or nice list?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are screams and giggles and laughter,\u201d said Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, \u201cDo you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NORAD\u2019s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War<\/a>, predating ugly sweater parties<\/a> and Mariah Carey classics<\/a>. Here\u2019s how it began and why the phones keep ringing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The origin story is Hollywood-esque<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It started with a child\u2019s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only \u201cred phone\u201d and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re not Santa,\u2019\u201d Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, \u201cHo, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoup said he learned from the boy\u2019s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This image provided by NORAD shows the command’s Santa tracker. (NORAD via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80 foot plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tradition was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNote to the kiddies,\u201d began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. \u201cSanta Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from \u201cthose who do not believe in Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the origin story humbug?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup\u2019s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy\u2019s call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service story<\/a> from Dec. 1, 1955, about a child\u2019s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should \u2014 considering the season:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he\u2019s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,\u2019\u201d Shoup said in the brief piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls<\/a> to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Santa tracker volunteer Meghan Huyck, right, and other volunteers answer phone calls from children all over the world at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado on Dec. 24, 2017. (Jerilee Bennett\/The Gazette via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, \u201cYou leave it right there,\u201d and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost morale for the troops and public alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy, it made the military look good \u2014 like we\u2019re not all a bunch of snobs who don\u2019t care about Santa Claus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014<\/a> that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd later in life he got letters from all over the world,\u201d said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. \u201cPeople saying \u2018Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rare addition to Santa\u2019s story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NORAD\u2019s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ad campaigns or movies try to \u201ckidnap\u201d Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote \u201cSanta Claus: A Biography.\u201d NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa\u2019s story and views it through a technological lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada \u2014 known as the northern warning system \u2014 are the first to detect Santa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every single day start to kick in,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cA probably little-known fact is that Rudolph\u2019s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org<\/a>, that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, Mountain Standard Time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa\u2019s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NORAD typically scans the heavens for potential threats. 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