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Christmas traditions have become nearly global in scope. Children around the world follow Santa Claus as he races around the globe delivering presents, defying time.
Each year, at least 100,000 children call the North American Aerospace Defense Command to ask about Santa’s whereabouts. Millions more follow us online in 9 languages, from English to Japanese.
NORAD also scans the sky on other nights for potential threats, like last year’s Chinese reconnaissance balloons. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs answer questions like, “When will Santa come to my house?” and “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”
“I hear screams and giggles and laughter,” said Bob Somers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer.
Mr. Somers would often call parents and tell them that everyone needed to be asleep before Santa arrived. we have to go to bed early. ”
NORAD’s annual Santa Tracker has been around since the Cold War, before ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics. This tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns like 2018 and this year.
Here’s how it all started and why your phone keeps ringing.
Hollywood origin story
It all started in 1955 with a child’s mistaken phone call. A Colorado Springs newspaper ran a Sears ad inviting children to call Santa and included a phone number.
A boy called. But he contacted the Continental Air Defense Forces (now NORAD), a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions with the Soviet Union were rising as well as fears of nuclear war.
Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up his emergency red phone and, in a low voice, began reciting his Christmas wish list.
“He continued for a little while, took a breather, and then said, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,'” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999.
Realizing that his explanations would not reach the young man, Shoup answered in a deep, cheerful voice: Yes, I’m Santa Claus. Have you been a good girl? ”
Mr. Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Mr. Sears had mistakenly printed the confidential number. He hung up, but soon the phone rang again and a young girl was reciting her Christmas list. After that, he says he received 50 calls a day.
Before the digital age, the bureau used a 60-by-80-foot (18-by-24-meter) Plexiglas map of North America to track unidentified objects. One of our staff members jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh in the sky above the North Pole.
A tradition was born.
On December 23, 1955, the Associated Press from Colorado Springs began an article with “Attention Children.” “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe entry into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Force.”
The article, likely referring to the Soviet Union, said Santa was wary of possible attacks from “those who don’t believe in Christmas.”
Is the original story Humbug?
Some disgruntled journalists took a harsh stance on Shoup’s story, questioning whether a typographical error or incorrect dialing prompted the boy’s call.
In 2014, the tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service article about the child’s December 1, 1955 phone call to Shoup. According to an article published in the Pasadena Independent, the child reversed two digits of the Sears number.
“When a childish voice asked COC Commander Col. Harry Shoup if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered more roughly than necessary, given the season.
“There may be a man called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I’m worried about coming from that direction,” Shoup said in a short article.
In 2015, The Atlantic noted that Shoup has a talent for public relations, but questioned the influx of calls to his secret line.
Phone calls aside, Mr. Shoup was certainly media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he saw an opportunity in 1955 when an employee drew Santa on a glass map.
The lieutenant colonel promised to erase it. But Mr. Shoup said, “Leave it alone,” and called for PR. Shoup wanted to boost the morale of the army and the people alike.
“Why, it makes the military look good, like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said.
Mr. Shoup passed away in 2009. Mr. Shoup’s children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that the call started with a misprinted Sears ad.
“After that, he received letters from all over the world,” said his daughter Terry Van Coolen. “People say, ‘Colonel, thank you for having this sense of humor.'”
An unusual addition to Santa’s story
Canadian historian Jerry Bowler, speaking to The Associated Press in 2010, said the NORAD tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story.
Mr Bowler, author of “The Biography of Santa Claus,” said advertising campaigns and movies were trying to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes. In contrast, NORAD takes a key element of Santa’s story and views it through the lens of technology.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radar (known as the Northern Alert System) in Alaska and Canada first spotted Santa.
He departs from the North Pole and usually heads for the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west following the night.
“That’s when the satellite systems that we use every day to track and locate targets of interest begin to work,” Cunningham said. “Maybe a little-known fact is that Rudolph’s glowing red nose emits a lot of heat, so those satellites track[Santa]through that heat source.”
NORAD has an app and website www.noradsanta.org that will track Santa from 4 a.m. to midnight (Mountain Standard Time) on Christmas Eve. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD and ask a live operator for Santa’s location from 6 a.m. Mountain Time to midnight.
Dr. Eileen Kennedy Moore, host of the Kids Ask Dr. Friendtastic podcast, shares her advice for broaching the topic this holiday season.
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