• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Why NORAD Tracks Santa

John Picard

John Picard

Vice Admiral
Admiral
Very Funny.

Military center tracking Santa's sleigh ride

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'" said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I've just been watching a news item about this. They interviewed a NORAD employee who told us that the reason they can track Santa so well is because of the heat signature given off by Rudolph's nose. It was all very serious. I tried to log on to NORAD to see how long I have to continue to be nice in the hope of some gifts from Santa but alas the site was just log-jammed.
 
I've known about it for years, and one of our local stations always posts where he is during the 10pm newscast. I could care less for Christmas, but it's neat that they do that for the kids.
 
As an adult I find it funny that he "leaves the North Pole" right around the 5 or 6pm local newscast, rather than say the far more logical time of sometime late the night before when it's Christmas Eve, night on the otherside of the world.

I mean, if he's just NOW getting started at 5pm CST he's got a LOT of time to makeup!

;)
 
Scrooge4747 said:
As an adult I find it funny that he "leaves the North Pole" right around the 5 or 6pm local newscast, rather than say the far more logical time of sometime late the night before when it's Christmas Eve, night on the otherside of the world.

I mean, if he's just NOW getting started at 5pm CST he's got a LOT of time to makeup!

;)
Click to expand...

They're mistaken, he's not just leaving, he's been back to restock his sleigh with presents but whenever he does that he always forgets to reactivate his stealth shield.
 
Like death and taxes, there are two things you can count on for Christmas. NORAD Santa reports, and the annual 'How much would all the items in the Twelve Days of Christmas song cost.'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top