Dear E-mail,
Have you been a good girl or boy? Or are you getting coal this year?
Well, as long as you haven't been so bad that you will get MINERAL RIGHTS to coal reserves rather than just lumps of coal, then you should be able to track Santa online, just like everyone else.
Well, good or bad, you can track Santa's progress with your kids, nieces, nephews and loved ones online at
http://www.NoradSanta.org courtesy of the US Air Force and the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
Track Santa as he makes his deliveries all over the world! Google Maps will refresh Santa's position every 5 minutes.
See Santa and his reindeer in 3D See more of Santa's stops around the world
Click
http://www.NoradSanta.org to watch. Tracking starts approximately at Noon on Christmas Eve. The tracking starts as soon as NORAD picks up Santa leaving the North Pole. Tracking is done in multiple languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.
You can also speak to a NORAD Santa Tracker in person:
Call toll free: 1 (877) Hi NORAD or 1 (877) 446-6723
Local, overseas: 1 (719) 556-5211 (cost incurred overseas)
Hearing Impaired: Contact your current relay service
The NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) program has been around for a long time, since 1955 to be exact!
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began on Christmas Eve in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup had his staff check radar data for any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's location. Thus, the tradition was born.
To listen to Colonel Shoup talk about the experience, click here. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command, known as NORAD. NORAD inherited the tradition of tracking Santa.
Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally. Additionally, media from all over the world call NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates on Santa's location. Last year this Website was visited by millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts.
NORAD relies on many volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Hundreds of volunteers spend part of their Christmas Eve at the Santa Tracking Operations Center answering phones and emails to provide Santa updates to thousands of inquiring children worldwide.
And while NORAD has the "history" and excellent technology to track Santa, NORAD cannot expend government funds on the program. Besides the short time a NTS Project Officer spends "managing" the program, NORAD spends only the minimal amount of funds on NTS.
So, how do we do it? The NTS program is funded through generous contributions from our sponsors. Everything from computer servers, web site design, video imaging, Santa's tracking map, and the toll free telephone number, to the souvenir Santa Tracker buttons volunteers are presented on Christmas Eve, companies, corporations and individual sponsors, or what we like to call Partners, bring this program to children around the world.
Without this wonderful generosity the NORAD Tracks Santa Program would not be possible, and NORAD sincerely thanks each and every one of them for their terrific support.
The NORAD Tracks Santa Program is managed by the NORAD and United States Northern Command Public Affairs Office at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, HQ NORAD/NORTHCOM, (719) 554-6889
ENJOY!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
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