Why Colorado-based NORAD started tracking Santa, and what it looks like this year

In November 1955, the red phone rang at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. The command center had been set up one year prior by President Dwight Eisenhower, as a joint operation of the Air Force, Army and Navy, tasked with keeping an eye on the Cold War skies. The red phone was a line set up to warn officials that a nuclear Soviet attack was imminent. Col. Henry W. Shoup picked up. 

“Yes, sir, this is Col. Shoup.

“Sir, this is Col. Shoup.

“Sir, can you read me all right?”

After another moment of silence, Shoup recalled many years later, a child’s voice came through the line:

“Are you really Santa Claus?”

How the rest of the conversation unfolded depends on who is doing the telling. According to The New York Times, Shoup responded so intensely that the child’s parent took over the phone and explained they’d called what was advertised as Santa’s number in a Sears advertisement. According to the National Air and Space Museum, Shoup responded: “There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction.” And according to Shoup himself, he assessed the situation, realized it wasn’t a joke, and answered: “Yes, I am. Have you been a good little girl?” 

Regardless of the exact verbiage, a tradition was born that continues today. On Christmas Eve over 1,000 volunteers gather at the Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to field calls from children around the world who want to know where Santa Claus is. The initiative is led by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.

The Santa tracker is “one of the largest, if not the largest, community engagement programs in the Department of Defense,” said John Ingle, a NORAD spokesman. 

Last year over 250,000 calls came in over the course of the day. This year they expect even more.

The most common questions are “where is Santa?” and “when will Santa come to my house?” Ingle said. 

To answer this question, volunteers simply have to read Santa’s coordinates from massive projections on the wall that locate where he is, was, and where he’s headed next. According to one repeat volunteer’s vlog, Santa’s course starts at the international date line in the Pacific Ocean and zig-zags west.

The volunteers’ shifts start at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve. They receive a playbook filled with answers to other frequently asked questions, like: 

How big is Santa’s sleigh? 150 lollipops long, 80 lollipops wide and 110 lollipops tall.

How fast does Santa fly? Faster than starlight. 

Do the fighter pilots see Santa? Yes, and they wobble their planes to wave hello.

But most of the time, true to the improvisational spirit that started the tradition, volunteers have to think on their toes. 

Can I talk to Santa? 

What is a reindeer’s favorite food?

Is Rudolph with Santa tonight?

Are you an elf?

The volunteers are not, in fact, elves. They are a mix of active-duty military members, family members and civilians who sign up for two-hour shifts during which they will field up to a call per minute. Last year the volunteers worked out of a conference room. This year NORAD moved the call center to an on-base hangar that will be decorated as a “winter wonderland,” Ingle said. “It’s going to be amazing.”

Ingle’s favorite story from the Santa tracker was relayed to him from a lieutenant who worked the lines last year. The lieutenant told him that they received a call from a child in Ukraine who wanted to know if Santa would turn the power back on.

“That just made people step back and pause, and realize the magnitude of this program, the reach that this program has and the importance that it plays in the lives of little kids around the world,” Ingle said. “It’s awe-inspiring, that on that day, in that moment, that this could bring them that type of hope.”You can track Santa starting at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve at www.noradsanta.org or call the hotline 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) with your burning questions.