Hundreds of volunteers help children track Santa at NORAD in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- An annual Colorado Springs tradition is well underway inside Peterson Space Force Base. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is taking thousands of calls from children across the globe all with one goal, find out where Santa Claus is.
It all started in 1955. That’s the year Sears published an ad in The Gazette with a message from Santa offering his personal number for kiddos to call him direct. The only problem? The number was a typo.
A Colonel answered the phone and played along with an unsuspecting little one and gave St. Nick's location. Fast forward 67 years later and the tradition is still alive. NORAD says they receive around 150,000 calls around Christmas time every year.
"It gives us a chance to showcase what NORAD does in the defense of North America. We take our work very seriously. We provide aerospace warning. Any threat that emanates to North America, aerospace control. If it is a threat, we would engage that threat, maritime warning," Commander Glen Van Herck said. "And then once a year, we have this very special mission of tracking Santa Claus. It takes a lot of volunteers, over 500 to answer calls along."
NORAD tells KRDO they received 66,000 calls this year. That number is up from 45,000 in 2021. Those were served say the best part is hearing from the children all across the world.
"It's absolutely the children and the connection," Deputy J3 Paul Murray. "And when you know, it only takes one or two times when you hear a child just get giddy at you giving them information of where Santa is for you don't want to keep coming back time and time again."
There are several ways to track Kris Kringle and his reindeer on Christmas Eve:
- Online at www.noradsanta.org
- By phone: Call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).
- On Twitter: Follow @NoradSanta for the latest updates
- On Facebook
- On your smart home devices, including Amazon Echo.
- Apps on iTunes and GooglePlay
