Track Santa’s Journey from the North Pole to Your Chimney with NORAD
Are you ready for Christmas? Santa Claus is coming to town for the first time in 364 days, and during that time, he’s been watching all the good little girls and boys. Of course, Santa doesn’t have to be the only one who’s watching. You can track Santa on NORAD, know where he’s dropping presents off, and keep track of when he’ll be in your neighborhood. Let’s learn about the history of Santa and the NORAD Santa Tracker.
The Amazing History of Santa Claus
Santa Claus wasn’t always a jolly fat man, making toys all year with his elves and then racing across the sky with his nine reindeer while being tracked by radars and aided by military jets. The legend started with an orphaned boy named Nicholas of Myra, who was born around 270 A.D. and grew up to be one of the most generous people to have ever lived. His birthplace is believed to be somewhere in Patara, Anatolia, which is now part of modern Turkey. He is the patron saint of children, unmarried women, sailors, merchants, toymakers, students, brewers, and more.
Saint Nicholas’ Legendary Generosity
Nicholas of Myra was orphaned when he was a young child, but his well-off Catholic parents had left him quite the inheritance. However, he didn’t use the money for himself. Instead, he used it to help those who were desperately poor or in need.
One of his more famous deeds involved a man with three daughters. The man was stressed because he could not pay the dowries that his daughters needed in order to get married. Nicholas heard about this man’s plight. Without dowry money, the father would be forced to send his girls into lives of poverty, hardship, and servitude. In order to save the girls, Nicholas tossed three bags of money into their home on three separate occasions. The money allowed the father to secure marriages for his daughters.
However, when Nicholas tossed the third bag of money down the chimney, he was discovered by the girls’ father before he could escape into the darkness. Nicholas explained to the man that he wished to remain anonymous. The father agreed to Nicholas’ wishes. This is where we get the legend of Santa sliding down the chimney and of people hanging Christmas socks on the mantel so that Santa could fill them with gifts and treats.
In another instance, Nicholas is said to have appeared in a merchant’s dream. Myra was experiencing a famine due to failed crops. The merchant was slated to sell grain to Egypt, but in the dream, Nicholas promised to pay him three gold coins if he would sell his grain in Myra instead, where Nicholas’ people were starving. When the merchant woke, he remembered his dream and sailed to Myra. Sr. Nicholas did, indeed, pay him three gold coins, and the merchant could sell his grain to the people. The people bought all the grain on the ship, and it was enough to feed everyone and provide seeds for the next crop. This story, again, illustrates St. Nicholas’ great generosity.
From Sinterklaas to Santa Claus
St. Nicholas had many names across Europe. He was known as Nicholas of Bari, Nicholas the Wonderworker, San Nicola, Saint Nicholas the Generous, and Sinterklaas, which was his Dutch name. It was the shortened or combined form of Sint Nikolaas, and the Dutch honored him on his feast day, which was December 6.
When the Dutch migrated to the Americas, they brought their Sinterklaas traditions with them, and that included handing out gifts and candies on St. Nicholas Eve, which was the night of December 5.
By the late 1700s, Saint Nicholas celebrations were being held in New York, and the first Saint Nicholas Anniversary dinner was held by the New York Historical Society in 1810. To mark the occasion, they had John Pintard paint the first American portrait of Saint Nicolas. The artist’s vision included a fireplace, stockings, and Saint Nicholas handing out gifts and candies.
The next big change came in 1821. A book entitled “The Children’s Friend” was published and contained a character named Santa Claus, who flew in a sleigh led by reindeer. Santa Claus handed out quiet toys, like dolls, peg-tops, and balls. This first Christmas story also introduced the theme of children being naughty or nice. Nice children received presents. Naughty children received a punishment. It was also the first time December 25th was mentioned instead of December 6th.
Two years later, The Night Before Christmas was published, and it spoke of a rolly-polly Santa Claus with a round belly and rosy cheeks. By the late 1800s, artists were beginning to portray Santa Claus in a red, fur-trimmed suit, and by the 1950s, Santa was starting to show up everywhere during the fall season, leading up to December 25th.
Modern Santa Claus
Today, Santa Claus makes toys all year round at the North Pole with help from his elves. Then, he delivers those toys in a red sleigh pulled by nine reindeer, while his Christmas journey is tracked by NORAD.
NORAD Tracks Santa Across the Globe
NORAD stands for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and it’s a combined venture between the United States and Canada. The goal of NORAD is to track everything that flies across the sky, including aircraft, UFOs, missiles, space vehicles, and Santa Claus’ sleigh.
The Misprinted Sears Ad
Modern Santa tracking started in 1955 with a misprinted Sears ad. The goal was to get people to call a number to talk to Santa. Instead, the printed number was for a classified phone located on Col. Harry Shoup’s desk. If that phone rang, something serious was happening, or at least, that’s what Shoup assumed when he answered that phone in 1955.
However, instead of hearing a senior military official, he heard a child asking, “Are you really Santa?”
At first, Shoup was confused. Was this a trick or a test by one of the higher-ups? It was neither, and Shoup quickly realized what had happened. Once the call was over, Shoup instructed the rest of his staff to answer any children’s calls as Santa or a Santa helper and to “track” Santa on the radars. Shoup also called a local radio station to tell them that they were tracking an unidentified object, but it looked like a sleigh heading in their direction from the North Pole.
CONAD Became NORAD in 1958 and Continued Tracking Santa
When CONAD became NORAD in 1958, the joint military organization continued the tradition of announcing Santa’s location. In 1960, the command post at Saint-Hubert in Quebec, Canada, made the announcements, talking about an S. Claus who had made an unscheduled emergency landing due to an injured reindeer. The RCAF investigated and then offered to escort S. Claus for the remainder of his journey.
In 1964, NORAD went so far as to mail all the radio stations vinyl records that reported Santa’s location and played holiday music recorded by the NORAD Commanders Band. The records contained five news reports about Santa’s progress, two promotional spots, and a Christmas poem entitled The Littlest Angel, written by Charles Tazewell on the front side. On the backside of the record, there were Christmas songs played by the Commanders Band.
Santa Tracking Phone Calls
From 1964 to 1997, NORAD used a system of telephone numbers, newspapers, and radio and TV to announce Santa’s location. Some announcements even included a weather report for the area where Santa was flying. Phone numbers to call and talk to Santa were made available, and military personnel and volunteers would answer the phones.
1997 Saw the Creation of the Santa Tacker Website
In 1997, NORAD created the Santa Tracker Website, where kids and adults could visit to get “real-time” updates of Santa’s progress online. Over the years, the map and website have become more detailed and elaborate. Newer incarnations allow visitors to zoom in on Santa to see him flying across the world to deliver gifts and candy.
The Fun Starts on December 1st
On December 1, 2025, https://www.noradsanta.org will go live. Each year, the site is redesigned by roughly 70 government and civilian Santa-tracking crew members. Those dedicated individuals also help set up the phone lines and apps. Once everything is live, more than 1,500 volunteers man the phones on Christmas Eve to ensure that every phone call and email is answered.
Each year, the website gets nearly 20 million views. The volunteers receive more than 126,000 calls, and they answer more than 2,000 emails. This year, you can track Santa at https://www.noradsanta.org, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noradsanta, on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/NORADTracksSanta and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/noradtrackssanta_official. The NORAD Tracks Santa Newsroom can be found at https://noradsantanews.com/newsroom.
From APN, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May Santa bring you everything you wish for.