Norad's Santa tracker dates back to the Cold War. Here's why it's still going – National
The tradition of Christmas is almost universal: Children from all over the world follow Santa Claus as he sweeps the world, bringing presents and a defiant time.
Each year, at least 100,000 children call the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa's location. Millions more follow online in nine languages, from English to Japanese.
On any other night, NORAD scans the skies for potential threats, like last year's Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs asked questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”
“There's crying and giggling and laughing,” said Bob Sommers, 63, a freelance contractor and NORAD volunteer.
The Sommers often say on the phone that everyone must go to bed before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he's saying? We should go to bed early.”
Norad's annual pursuit of Santa has endured since the Cold War, before ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. The tradition continues regardless of whether the government is shut down, like in 2018, and this year.
Here's how it started and why the phones keep ringing.
The origin story is Hollywood-esque
It started with a child's accidental phone call in 1955. A Colorado Springs newspaper published a Sears ad encouraging children to call Santa, writing down phone numbers.
A boy called. But he reached out to the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint US-Canadian effort to detect potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with concerns about nuclear war.
Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up the emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a small voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list.
“He went on a little bit, took a deep breath, and said, 'Hey, you're not Santa,'” Shoup told the Associated Press in 1999.
Realizing that the meaning would be lost on the boy, Shoup called out a deep, funny voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Was he a good boy?”
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Shoup said he found out from the boy's mother that Sears had mistakenly entered a private number. He hung up, but the phone rang again and a young girl was listing her Christmas list. He said fifty calls a day.
In the pre-digital era, the agency used a 60-by-80 foot (18-by-24 meter) plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. The worker jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole.
A tradition was born.
“Notice to children,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Friday Santa Claus was confirmed to enter the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.”
Possibly referring to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was on guard against possible attacks from “those who do not believe in Christmas.”
Is the origin story humbug?
Some bemused reporters picked up on Shoup's story, wondering if a misprint or miscommunication prompted the boy's call.
In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited the International News Service from Dec. 1, 1955, regarding the summons of the child to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said that the child changed two numbers in the Sears code.
“When the child's voice asked the COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, on whether there is a Santa Claus at the North Pole, answered almost as much as he should — considering the season:
'There may be a guy named Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he's not the one I worry about leaving,'” Shoup said in the short clip.
In 2015, The Atlantic magazine questioned the volume of calls to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a gift for public relations.
Phone calls aside, Shoup was media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he saw an opportunity when an employee drew Santa on a glass map in 1955.
The lieutenant colonel promised that he would be cleared. But Shoup said, “Leave it right there,” and called public affairs. Shoup wanted to raise morale in the soldiers and the public alike.
“Why, make the soldiers look good – like we're not all a bunch of people who don't care about Santa Claus,” he said.
Shoup died in 2009. Her children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a poorly printed Sears ad that prompted the calls.
“And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, daughter. “People who say 'Thank you, Colonel, for, you know, these jokes.'
An unusual addition to the story of Santa
The NORAD tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that has endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010.
Ad campaigns or movies try to “capture” Santa for marketing purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an important part of Santa's story and views it through a technological lens.
In a recent interview with AP, Air Force Lt Gen. Case Cunningham explained that the NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada – known as the northern warning system – are the first to detect Santa.
You leave the North Pole and usually head for the international timeline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he goes west, following the night.
“That's where the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets every day come into play,” Cunningham said. “It's a little-known fact that Rudolph's glowing red nose gives off a lot of heat. So those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.”
NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org, that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, regular mountain time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa's location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time.
