The 12 Posts of Christmas, vol. 5

[partially taken from the Official Google Blog]

You might think that NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) might have their hands full tracking terrorists and all, but for the month of December a few of the monitors in Cheyenne Mountain are tuned to tracking Santa Claus.

It all started more than fifty years ago, when on Christmas Eve in 1955, a Sears Roebuck & Co. store in Colorado Springs advertised a special hotline number for kids to call Santa. However, the company had inadvertently misprinted the telephone number. Instead of Santa's workshop, the phone number put kids through to the NORAD. It wasn't just any number at NORAD: it was the commander-in-chief's operations hotline. Full of the Christmas spirit, the Director of Operations at that time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar data for any indication of a sleigh making its way south from the North Pole. They found that indeed there were signs of Santa, and merrily gave the children who called an update on his location. A tradition was born, and NORAD has continued to help children track Santa on Christmas Eve ever since.

This holiday season, NORAD has partnered with Google to use technology including Google Maps, Google Earth, iGoogle and YouTube to track Santa. Starting at 1:00 am PST on December 24th, you'll be able to track Santa's trip in real time. Throughout the month, you can visit the site and find activities to keep the kids amused and, presumably, good.