NORAD continues decades-long tradition of tracking Santa's trip around the world

More than 1,000 volunteers will be taking calls to 1-877-HI-NORAD on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight Mountain Standard Time. For the first time this year, Santa seekers can place a call through the program's website, which organizers say will be easier for people outside North America.

The website allows people to follow Santa’s journey in nine languages, including English and Japanese.

Last year, about 380,000 calls came into a hangar festooned with Christmas decorations at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs — the home of NORAD.

While Santa is no threat, the same combination of radar, satellites and jets that help NORAD carry out its mission throughout the year make it capable of tracking the progress of Santa starting from the international date line over the Pacific Ocean, said Col. Kelly Frushour, a NORAD spokesperson.

Rudolph's nose gives off a heat signature similar to a missile that is picked up by NORAD's satellites, she said.

‘Faster than starlight’

Last year, Frushour said one girl was upset after hearing Santa was on his way to the International Space Station, where two astronauts were stranded.

“Thankfully, by the time the call was over, Santa Claus had moved on to another destination and the child was reassured that Santa was not trapped in space and was going to make it to her house later that evening,” Frushour said.

A special needs man named Henry who calls every year once asked if the jet pilot escorting Santa through North America could put a note in the plane letting Santa know he was in bed and ready for him to come, said Michelle Martin, a NORAD staffer and Marine veteran.

She said she explained that Santa travels “faster than starlight.”

"I don’t know that our pilot can catch up with him fast enough. He just waves and he goes,” she recalled saying.

A tradition started by mistake

The tradition started in 1955 when NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, was on the lookout for any sign of a possible nuclear attack from the then-Soviet Union. NORAD says a child mistakenly called the combat operations center and asked to speak to Santa Claus. The commander on duty, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup didn't want to disappoint the child, so he ordered staffers to start tracking Santa and take calls from children.

The story goes that the first phone call was either the result of a misprint or a misdial of a number included in a Sears advertisement in the Colorado Springs newspaper encouraging children to call Santa.

The legend developed into the first call coming into a dedicated hotline that connected the command with a general in case of an attack. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, saying a call to a public phone line was more probable and noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.

In a 1999 interview with The Associated Press, Shoup recalled playing along once he figured out what was happening, telling the first caller, “Ho, ho, ho, I am Santa.”

“The crew was looking at me like I had lost it," he recalled.

He said he told his staff what was happening and told them to play along, too.

It’s not clear what day the first call came in, but by Dec. 23 of that first year, The Associated Press reported that CONAD was tracking Santa.

CONAD soon became North American Aerospace Defense Command. It used to operate inside nearby Cheyenne Mountain. A network of tunnels had been blasted out of the mountain's hard granite so NORAD officers could survive a nuclear attack.