Every year on Christmas Eve, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) just up the road from Pueblo in Colorado Springs takes on an important mission.
Since 1955, kids across the country and globe have relied on NORAD to keep tabs and provide updates on the movements of the one and only Santa Claus as he delivers gifts to children around the world.
And it all started with a misprinted number in a Sears ad.
Here’s what to know about NORAD’s Santa tracker and when boys and girls who’ve made the big man’s nice list can expect it to go live.
When does NORAD’s Santa tracker go live?
The NORAD Tracks Santa website went live Dec. 1. In addition to the popular Santa tracker, which will begin monitoring Santa’s movements around 4 a.m. the morning of Christmas Eve, the site features Santa’s North Pole Village, which includes holiday-themed games, music and a countdown to the tracker’s yearly launch.
The website is available in nine languages and the NORAD Tracks Santa app is also available in the Apple App and Google Play stores. The tracker will also be available on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X, according to NORAD.
Those without internet access worldwide can also call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) on Dec. 24 to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight MST.
When will Google’s Santa tracker be active?
While NORAD has led the efforts to track Kriss Kringle for the past 69 years, they’re not the only ones keeping tabs on the world’s foremost pioneer in package delivery.
Google runs a popular Santa tracker of its own, which goes live Dec. 24.
The technology company’s Santa tracker website is already live and currently features Christmas-themed games, as well as its own countdown clock for when the Santa tracker will go live.
The 1955 Sears ad that helped start the NORAD Tracks Santa program.
Why did NORAD start tracking Santa?
The tradition began in 1955 when the Continental Air Defense Command — the predecessor to NORAD — received a call on a secret phone line that went directly to the Pentagon.
Only Air Force Col. Harry Shoup and a four-star general knew the phone number.
“If that rang, it wasn’t good news,” Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren, told the Coloradoan in 2018.
But the caller on the line was no military general or Pentagon official warning the command about some new threat to national security, it was a child anxiously awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus.
After speaking with the child’s mother, Shoup discovered a misprint in a Sears ad that ran in that morning’s paper had resulted in the command’s top-secret number being published instead of that of Sears’ Santa line.
NORAD’s live operators chat with callers about Santa’s whereabouts.
Shoup stationed some airmen on the red phone to field the calls pouring in from children wanting to talk about their Christmas lists.
He then sorted out the issue with the phone company and was issued a new phone number. While Shoup didn’t know it at the time, he’d just pioneered a new tradition.
Nearly seven decades later, the yearly Santa tracking continues.
More than 1,250 Canadian and American uniformed personnel and Department of Defense civilians volunteer their time each Dec. 24 to answer the thousands of phone calls and emails that come in from around the world.
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Chieftain Editor Zach Hillstrom can be reached at zhillstrom@gannett.com or on X, at @ZachHillstrom. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: When is Santa coming to Colorado? Track his movements here