NORAD and Santa

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NORAD is the North American Defense Command. Their mission is to provide aerospace warning, air sovereignty protection of Northern America.

One day in 1955, Sears ran a promotional advertisement for children to call Santa Claus. But their advertisement unknowingly had a typo in the phone number. Instead of calling to speak to the Santa Claus at the Sears marketing office, the number rang to Col. Harry Shoup’s secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command. This was during the Cold War! Was this a security breach? Was this a joke? Young children were calling and starting to cry.

They realized what happened once Col. Shoup started asking to speak to the mothers’ of these children.

Each year since, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa’s location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families across the world. Because of the support, services and resources generously provided by volunteers and our government and corporate contributors, NORAD Tracks Santa has persevered for more than 65 years. 

The NORAD Tracks Santa Web Site receives several million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers typically answer more than 130,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children across the globe.