Track Santa's annual flight online [LIVE THREAD]

sun-sentinel.com ^ | December 23 2005

[ovrtaxt]

When Christmas Eve comes, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), will track Santa Claus during his annual flight.

NORAD is responsible for handling the air defense of the North America continent. But it has also been tracking Santa's movements on Christmas Eve for the past 50 years.

[ovrtaxt]

The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.

Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties.

He'll be taking off at 4am EST.

[RushCrush]

Dang it's kinda early to start trackin! But will do!

[Darkwolf377]

Santa has to start early, lots of good soldiers to drop presents to in Afghanistan and Iraq. :)

[conservative in nyc]

Santa has to start early, lots of good soldiers to drop presents to in Afghanistan and Iraq. :)

And a lot of good soldiers, sailors and airmen in Guam, Japan and Korea before that.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

[1FASTGLOCK45]

---Worth repeating: Very cool! ::

ovrtaxt quoted: --|
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"The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.
Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties."

[Larry Lucido]

Doesn't he have, like, 1/10,000th of a second to get to each home, not counting chimney and milk & cookie time? They're likely to all burn up in the atmosphere at that speed.

[Fred Nerks]

And that terrible teacher told those poor little children there was no Santa! If NORAD can track him all the way from the North Pole, then he must be real, right? I mean, who are you gunna believe? Some disgusting liberal teacher with an agenda or NORAD? duh!

[Mo1]

Ho Ho Ho
Merry Christmas!

[Forest Keeper]

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

What time does Hanukkah Harry take off?

[conservative in nyc]

What time does Hanukkah Harry take off?

Probably a little bit later, since Hanukkah starts at sundown. But how do you know when it's sundown in a place where the sun never came up in the first place?

[durasell]

I miss the NYC transit strike threads....

[Aussiebabe]

And Santa has already been here downunder in Oz for those who receive presents on Christmas Eve, only a few more hours to Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to all the Feepers from Oz!

[Forest Keeper]

But how do you know when it's sundown in a place where the sun never came up in the first place?

Schlomo always knows. He will guide their sleigh tonight. :)

[conservative in nyc]

I don't miss the transit strike. So I don't miss the transit thread strikes.

[NapkinUser]

"He'll be taking off at 4am EST."

Santa is on eastern standard time?

[durasell]

Another small piece of city history...

[BykrBayb]

I found this picture of Santa. I don't think it's from NORAD, but it does seem to be authentic.

[shaggy eel]

,,, here's the first stop after Tonga as the dateline rolls out - and there's not too many good boys and girls in Tonga right now, so that won't be a long stop.

[NapkinUser]

[AZRepublican]

Doesn't he have, like, 1/10,000th of a second to get to each home, not counting chimney and milk & cookie time? They're likely to all burn up in the atmosphere at that speed.

Assuming Santa operates in 3-D space/time that is prolly true. But I have a feeling he utilizes a method that we cannot yet imagine at this stage of our evolution :-)