NORAD opens new space for 68th year of tracking Santa

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The folks at NORAD are preparing to track Santa's journey worldwide for the 68th time, but this time with a new command center.

This year, they expanded their space to track Santa, which Santa's helpers are excited about!

The new space on Peterson Space Force base is much larger. A design team out of South Carolina arrived early to decorate the new command center with Christmas trees, garlands, balloons, and more.

More than one thousand volunteers will answer calls from children worldwide on Christmas Eve.

Those answering the phones speak more than eight languages and will let children know exactly where Santa is when they call.

Last year, NORAD answered more than a quarter million calls and reached over four billion people.

"A lot of people have grown up tracking Santa as a kid or with their kids or maybe with their grandparents. I mean, that's the unique thing about the program, the multi-generational aspect of it," says Preston Schlachter, Chief of Operations.

One of those volunteers from South Carolina says she is thrilled to be a part of the event this year.

"I am volunteering to take calls; I'm super excited about it. I've heard so many stories about the excitement and the calls that come through," Sonja Pako.

The Santa Tracker program started in 1955 when a young child called the control operations center asking to speak to Santa Claus.

A local advertisement misprinted the phone number for a Santa hotline and an Air Force Colonel answered the phone. After answering the phone, he realized the mistake in the ad and didn't want to disappoint the child. He gave the order to the watch room to start tracking Santa and answering the calls from the children.

If you want to call the center to track Santa on Christmas Eve, click this link.