NORAD started tracking St. Nick on Christmas Eve after a child tried to call Santa’s phone number but got the Air Force instead. Now 1,500 helpers answer the hotline every year.
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For all the children fretting about whether or not Santa Claus is real, he is — at least, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has made it a yearly tradition to track Santa’s route across the world as he delivers presents on his sleigh.
The practice started in 1955, after a newspaper misprinted a Santa hotline number, meant for a local department store, that led to NORAD — then called Continental Air Defense Command.
On Christmas Eve, a young child decided to call the line, and the Air Force Colonel who was working that night realized what went wrong. However, he wasn’t going to disappoint the kid.
“Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night who answered the child’s phone call, was quick to realize a mistake had been made and assured the child he was Santa,” a post from NORAD read. “After more incoming calls, Shoup assigned a duty officer to continue answering calls and a tradition was born that continued when NORAD was formed in 1958.”
Now, NORAD’s operation has grown from a single Santa phone line to a complex tracking operation, which includes real-time location data about all the good children Santa has visited and the number of presents he has delivered.
Lieutenant Sean Carter, a public-affairs officer who runs the NORAD Tracks Santa program, told Insider that the phones are operated by 1,500 volunteers on average each year. Volunteers usually answer over 130,000 calls a year, according to NORAD.
NORAD’s website also states that several million unique Santa believers from more than 200 countries and territories around the world visit the site.
Maj. Gen. Parker Wright, director of intelligence for NORAD, explained to NPR that in order to track Santa’s sleigh, a satellites must detect Rudolph’s red glowing nose — presumably powered by good holiday cheer — at the front of the sleigh.
“When Santa takes off, and Rudolph’s the lead there with red nose we’re able to pick him up using a series of infrared satellites that are orbiting the Earth some 22,000 miles above the Earth,” Wright told NPR. “And so the heat signature that Rudolph’s nose puts off we’re able to detect using the satellite.”
Wright also confirmed to NPR that NORAD has seen Santa multiple times, and that St. Nick indeed has eyes that “twinkle” and his dimples are, in fact, merry.
“When our pilots intercept Santa and his sleigh, they’re able to wave and waggle the wings and Santa knows where they are,” Wright told NPR. “And we know that he appreciate what we’re able to provide for him.”
Here is a list of ways to track Santa this year: