Military installation NORAD tracks Santa Claus across the globe
By APThursday, December 24, 2009
NORAD tracks Santa’s sleigh
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Santa Claus is making steady progress and appears to be on track for a late-night arrival in the United States.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has tracked Santa’s progress every Christmas Eve since 1955. On Thursday morning, the Colorado military installation showed Santa having visited parts of Asia and Australia and moving westward.
NORAD usually monitors threats against the United States and Canada, but turns its radars on Santa each holiday.
The tradition started more than 50 years ago when a newspaper Sears-Roebuck ad told kids to dial a number if they wanted to talk to Santa.
But the number was one digit off. When the first call came to NORAD’s predecessor, a military colonel told an eager child he would check the radars for Santa.
On the Net:
www.noradsanta.org
