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NORAD Santa Tracker: Saint Nick Completes Gift-Delivering Run Around the World

Santa completed his journey around the globe

The North American Aerospace Defense Command tracked Santa Claus as he made his Christmas Eve journey across the globe — despite the government shutdown.

Click here to see photos from Santa's journey. 

The NORAD Santa Tracker, which went live just after midnight on Christmas Eve, uses satellite systems, high-powered radars and jet fighters, to follow Saint Nick as he makes his Yuletide journey around the world.

Historically, he follows Christmas as it dawns across the globe. He visits the South Pacific before heading to New Zealand and Australia, then treks to Asia, across to Africa and on to Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.

“Keep in mind, Santa’s route can be affected by weather, so it’s really unpredictable,” NORAD wrote. “NORAD coordinates with Santa’s Elf Launch Staff to confirm his launch time, but from that point on, Santa calls the shots. We just track him!”

The tracker wasn't affected by the government shutdown because it is run by volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado and funded by the Department of Defense's budget that was approved earlier this year.

Now in its 63rd year, the Santa tracker became a Christmas Eve tradition after a mistaken phone call to the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1955. CONAD, as it was known, had the serious job of monitoring a far-flung radar network for any sign of a nuclear attack on the United States.

When Col. Harry Shoup picked up the phone that day, he found himself talking not to a military general, but to a child who wanted to speak to Santa Claus. A Colorado Springs newspaper had run an ad inviting kids to call Santa but mistakenly listed the hotline number.

Shoup figured out what had happened and played along. The tradition has since mushroomed into an elaborate operation that attracts tens of thousands of calls every year.

For the 1,500 civilian and military volunteers who answered the phones for kids calling 1-877-HI-NORAD, it infuses the holiday with childlike wonder.

"They're all really sweet, small voices," said Madison Hill, a volunteer who helped answer the phones in two previous years, ahead of this year's festivities.

"I had a little girl tell me goodnight instead of goodbye," she said. "It's really sweet."

The North American Aerospace Defense Command — a joint U.S.-Canadian operation based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that protects the skies over both countries — has taken over the Santa tracker since the tradition started. The military command center embraced and expanded the Santa-tracking mission and has been rewarded with a bounty of goodwill and good publicity.

Last year, NORAD Tracks Santa drew 126,000 phone calls, 18 million website hits, 1.8 million followers on Facebook and 179,000 more on Twitter.

Santa and his sleigh may have had a hard time staying under the radar thanks to the site, which is accessible in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

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