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NORAD app helps kids track Santa Claus
Source: Agencies |
December 18, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
CHILDREN eager to track Santa Claus on his annual yuletide journey to homes across the world can download a new mobile app from the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The new app for Windows 8, called NORAD Tracks Santa, is part of a 57-year-long holiday tradition at NORAD of tracking Santa. It will allow children to keep up with him on their mobile devices and joins similar apps for iOS and Android.
"Every December 24th since 1955 we have been telling children exactly where Santa is so that children all over the world can make sure that they're in bed on time so that Santa will deliver their presents," explained Stacey Knott, a deputy chief at NORAD, a US-Canadian military organization based in Colorado.
NORAD's involvement dates back to a 1955 advertisement in a Sears, Roebuck & Co store asking children to call Santa directly. But the phone number in the ad contained a typo.
Instead of reaching Santa, the children gained access to the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.
"Any call that came though on this line was typically the chairman, or the secretary of defense, or even the president," Knott said.
Colonel Harry Shoup was working that Christmas Eve when the first child called.
"This little tiny girl's voice said, 'Is this Santa?'" Knott explained. "[Colonel Shoup] then talked to the girl's mom and realized what had happened."
Shoup instructed his staff to check the radar for signs of Santa and relayed the information to the children, and the tradition was born.
The new app for Windows 8, called NORAD Tracks Santa, is part of a 57-year-long holiday tradition at NORAD of tracking Santa. It will allow children to keep up with him on their mobile devices and joins similar apps for iOS and Android.
"Every December 24th since 1955 we have been telling children exactly where Santa is so that children all over the world can make sure that they're in bed on time so that Santa will deliver their presents," explained Stacey Knott, a deputy chief at NORAD, a US-Canadian military organization based in Colorado.
NORAD's involvement dates back to a 1955 advertisement in a Sears, Roebuck & Co store asking children to call Santa directly. But the phone number in the ad contained a typo.
Instead of reaching Santa, the children gained access to the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.
"Any call that came though on this line was typically the chairman, or the secretary of defense, or even the president," Knott said.
Colonel Harry Shoup was working that Christmas Eve when the first child called.
"This little tiny girl's voice said, 'Is this Santa?'" Knott explained. "[Colonel Shoup] then talked to the girl's mom and realized what had happened."
Shoup instructed his staff to check the radar for signs of Santa and relayed the information to the children, and the tradition was born.
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