History of The Santa Tracker

The NORAD Santa Tracker is one of my favorite things during the Christmas Season! And the cool thing is it started by accident. The Santa Tracker program started in 1955, when a local Sears store in Colorado Springs, printed a newspaper ad inviting kids to call a certain phone number to talk to Santa. The number was misprinted, and the calls ended up going to the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD’s predecessor). The colonel on duty that night realized the mistake, so he ordered his officers and his troops to start tracking Santa using our systems and telling the kids where Santa was throughout the night. NORAD continues the tradition of tracking Santa 67 years later, and according to their website . . . “We’re the only organization that has the technology, the qualifications, and the people to do it. And, we love it! NORAD is honored to be Santa’s official tracker!”