NORAD

Santa has a ticket to fly

Holidays, ,

North Pole ice santa

Wondering if Santa is going to make it to your house this week?

For the 61st year, the folks at the North American Aerospace Defense Command have the NORAD Tracks Santa website (and apps) ready to keep an eye on Santa as he flies around the world.

Right now the website has a holiday countdown, games, activities, holiday songs and tidbits about Santa, his elves, and the reindeer in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

At 2:01 a.m. EST on Dec. 24 you can go to the NORAD website to see Santa get ready for his flight.

Then NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will have videos of Santa flying around the world.

If you’re concerned about exactly where the jolly fellow is and exactly when he’ll be in your town, at 6 a.m. EST, you can start calling a NORAD tracker and ask (1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or send an email to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com.

Cortana will also be able to tell you Santa’s location and OnStar subscribers can press the OnStar button in their vehicles to locate Santa.

Now it’s all about Santa’s trip

Fun Stuff, Holidays, Kids, ,

SANTA fruit label

Now that all that turkey business is over with, it’s time to start watching the skies for Santa.

NORAD – the North American Aerospace Defense Command – is already on the job with its NORAD Tracks Santa website, which has a holiday countdown, games, activities, Santa data and more in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

Leaving no Santa-tracking stone unturned, NORAD is also tracking Santa with apps in the Windows, Apple and Google Play stores, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+.

Why does NORAD track Santa?

The story goes that in 1955 a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa. The phone number put kids through to the desk of the Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD’s predecessor) Commander-in-Chief instead and that man, Colonel Harry Shoup, played along and gave kids updates on Santa’s progress.

A tradition was born and now, using the internet and a team of volunteer elves, the whole world can check on Santa via NORAD’s satellites and Santa cams.

NORAD isn’t the only organization tracking Santa this season. Finnair, which claims to be the official airline of Santa Claus since 1983, has two of its Airbus 321 Sharklet aircraft flying with Christmas livery.

Official airline of Santa Claus_edited

The airline also is also sharing this “secret of Christmas” video.

NORAD is tracking Santa. Are you?

Holidays, , ,

Throughout the year NORAD , the North American Aerospace Defense Command, busies itself with monitoring the skies for airplanes, missiles, space launches and other things that fly in the skies.

But on Christmas, NORAD focuses on scanning the skies for Santa as he travels in his sleigh around the world. There’s even a Santa Tracker so we can follow along.

From years of tracking Santa, NORAD has learned a few things:

While it can’t predict when Santa will arrive at a certain house, NORAD does know that “he arrives only when children are asleep.”

NORAD also knows Santa’s preferred flying route:

“Santa usually starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west. So, historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he shoots up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto 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 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!”

NORAD’s Christmas night

Fun Stuff, Holidays,

Three airports, twelve hours of flying, one upgrade (on the longest leg; thank-you, Santa), and a ride on the light rail ride and in a taxi is all it took to get home to Seattle on Christmas Day from Maryland. Planes were full and there were plenty of families with babies and toddlers in tow; no doubt on their way home from grandparents’ houses.

I bet – like me – some of those families turned to NORAD on Christmas Eve to find out when Santa was heading their way. NORAD – the North American Aerospace Defense Command – not only tracked where Santa was, how many presents he had delivered and, according to this AP story, answered more than 111,000 phone calls, the agency also shared Santa-cam videos of the big guy in action.

http://youtu.be/fDj_IAaerdY