NORAD tracks Santa for 64th year

Santa Claus is coming to town. Once again NORAD is tracking Santa Claus on his journey around the world delivering presents to all of the children, who of course have to be on the nice list.

As of right now, Santa is set to arrive here in Colorado sometime between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Since 1955, NORAD has made it their mission to track Santa Claus on his journey. But did you know that this 60-year tradition started by a simple mistake?

“Sears printed an ad in their paper that had a number to call Santa, it was part of a marketing thing," explained Lt. Commander Michael Hatfield. "But it actually went to NORAD's command center. And so, when the children started calling in, then the people that were working there at the time, the officers, just started answering questions about Santa.”

Thanks to that misprint, Norad Tracks Santa took off and became an annual event. Last year alone they received nearly 140,000 phone calls.

“[It's a] fun way to talk about how NORAD defends North America but using Santa as kind of a tool to do that," said Hatfield.

And these phone calls aren't only American and Canadian children. They come from kids all around the world.

“Five from Japan, five from Australia, I have had some Korean, Bulgaria, so that’s kind of fun," said Michelle Orlowske, a volunteer of the program for eight years.

This year she’s responding to emails which are another way for kids to track Santa if they do not want to call.

“My mom actually started it in 2009 and my mom asked me if I wanted to join in 2011 and so I’ve been doing it ever since and we have always done this 4 am to 8 am shift. So it’s a lot of fun,” said Orlowske.

And as Santa works hard delivering presents, 1,200 volunteers continue to work just as hard following him on his journey. If you would like to call you can do so by dialing 1-877-HI-NORAD.