Norad Santa Tracker & History

Each year, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command center, allows children to follow Santa as he travels across the world bringing toys and gifts to children everywhere. NORAD's Santa Tracker will go online in 2009 on December 1st.

On Christmas Eve, visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website (NoradSanta.org). The website features a CGI (computer generated image) version of Santa and shows his location as he and the reindeer make their way across the skies. There is also a map showing his position, which is updated every five minutes.

The Santa Tracker tradition began on Christmas Eve in 1955. A newspaper ad accidentally put the number for the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado (CONAD) instead of a Santa-hotline. Soon calls began streaming in from children. Instead of hanging up, Col. Harry Shoup told the operators to find Santa's location and give the children updates. When NORAD was formed in 1958, the tradition continued. Thanks to modern technology, his movements can now be tracked online.

In 2006, the NORAD Santa tracker website was visited by almost a billion people in over 200 countries. NORAD's volunteers also help by answering e-mails and telephone calls from kids everywhere.

The following year, in 2007, Google teamed up with NORAD and the website featured Google's Map technology.

In 2008, Google released an iGoogle countdown application for iGoogle homepages. Leading up to Christmas, the handy gadget provides a countdown of how many days there are until Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the Santa tracker gadget updates to show exactly where he is and provides a link to see the latest videos. (Get the iGoogle gadget: NORAD Santa Tracker.)

^{Source: SearchEngineLand and NORAD}