You don’t have to be a child to be excited for Santa Claus’s arrival tomorrow, the Santa tracker is for everyone.
It’s (nearly) Chriiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaas, as Slade would say and that can only mean one thing: Santa is currently doing his rounds around the globe, spreading Christmas joy and nabbing his cookies, mince pies, milk and whatever else is left out as an offering.
Whether you’re a believer or not, it’s still so much fun to pretend that a big, fat, man in a red suit bearing gifts is on his way to your house.
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Well, that didn’t sound as weird in my head.
Nevertheless, you can get in a little bit more last-minute whimsical festive feeling into tonight before waking up and enjoying Xmas with your family by checking out the Santa tracker.
For years, kiddies have been able to see where he is on the map by watching the North American Aerospace Defence Command, aka NORAD.
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The background of how NORAD came to be is the cutest thing ever.
Essentially, it all began way back in 1955, when a kid rang a Colorado military command and asked to speak to Santa.
He was able to get their highly private number after a local newspaper misprinted the phone number for an event.
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So, when Air Force Commander Harry Shoup answered the call on Christmas Eve, decided to tell them that he was indeed Santa.
Because it was a misprint, the child wasn’t the last to call, and when more and more children called to talk to Santa, he assigned a duty officer to continue answering the phone and pretend to be Santa.
Thus became the tradition which then became NORAD in 1958, which uses volunteers to talk to children on the phones each year.
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Its website reads: “On Dec. 24, we have the very special mission of also tracking Santa using the same systems we use every day: satellite systems, high-powered radar and jet fighters. For more than 65 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defence Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight around the world.
“The modern tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955 when a young child accidentally dialled the unlisted phone number of the CONAD Operations Center upon seeing an newspaper advertisement telling kids to call Santa.
“The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, answered the phone and instructed his staff to check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.”
Now that we’re in the age of technology, NORAD created an online tracker which provides Santa’s movements in real-time.
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For kids this year, they have been able to track Santa since it was launched on 1 December where he was sat at the North Pole until he begins to move tonight.
You can hop on it right now as it tracks Santa from 6am today up until 2am tomorrow (Christmas Day).
But the best thing is you can download the app you’re your iPhone or Android (it doesn’t discriminate).
Or you can call NORAD on 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) right now until 2am.
You can also use the Google tracker too.