That of the army tradition of following Santa Claus on its gravity-defying journey around the world will continue this Christmas Eve, even if the US government closes its doorsofficials said Friday.
Every year, at least 100,000 children call the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions of others follow online – in nine languages – as St. Nick floats along the Earth’s meridians.
“We fully expect Santa Claus to fly on December 24 and NORAD to follow,” the US-Canadian agency said in a statement.
On any other evening, NORAD scans the sky for potential threatslike last year Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, answer questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”
The effort is supported by local and corporate sponsors, who also help protect tradition from Washington’s dysfunction.
Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and volunteer with NORAD, told The Associated Press that there are “screams, giggling and laughter” when families call, usually over the loudspeaker.
Sommers often says during the call that everyone should sleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Did you hear what he said?” We have to go to bed early.’
NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa Claus has held up ever since the Cold Warfor ugly sweater parties And Mariah Carey classics. Here’s how it started and why the phones keep ringing.
It started with an accidental phone call from a child in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears ad encouraging children to call Santa Claus, including a phone number.
A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada effort to detect potential enemy attacks. Tensions with the Soviet Union increased, along with concerns about nuclear war.
Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a small voice that began reciting a Christmas wish list.
“He went on for a while, takes a deep breath and then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999.
Realizing that an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup raised a deep, cheerful voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho!” Yes, I am Sinterklaas. Have you been a good boy?”
Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears had accidentally printed the top secret number. He hung up, but soon the phone rang again as a young girl recited her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said.
In the pre-digital era, the agency used an 60-by-80-foot Plexiglas map of North America to track unidentified objects. An employee jokingly pulled Santa Claus and his sleigh across the North Pole.
The tradition was born.
“Note to the Children,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Sinterklaas Friday received assurances from the Continental Air Defense Command that passage to the United States was safe.”
In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa Claus was protected from possible attacks by “those who do not believe in Christmas.”
Some creepy reporters have ridiculed Shoup’s story, wondering whether a misprint or wrong number prompted the boy’s call.
In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo quoted a story from the International News Service from December 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. The article, published in the Pasadena Independent, said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number.
“When a childish voice asked COC Commander Colonel Harry Shoup if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he replied much more rudely than he should have – given the season:
“There may be a man named Santa Claus at the North Pole, but I’m not worried about him coming from that direction,” Shoup said in the short piece.
In 2015, The Atlantic magazine questioned the flood of phone calls to the Secret Line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.
Aside from the phone calls, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he saw an opportunity when an employee drew Santa Claus on the glass card in 1955.
A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “Leave it at that,” and called for public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost the morale of both the troops and the public.
“Well, it made the military look good, like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said.
Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the calls.
“And later in life he started getting letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People say, ‘Thank you, Colonel, for your sense of humor.'”
The tradition of NORAD is one of the few modern additions to the age-old Santa story that has endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010.
Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa Claus for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, on the other hand, takes an essential element of the Santa story and looks at it through a technological lens.
In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada — known as the Northern Warning System — are the first to detect Santa Claus.
It leaves the North Pole and usually heads for the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night.
“That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every day kick in,” Cunningham said. “A probably little known fact is that Rudolph’s nose, which glows red, gives off a lot of heat. And so those satellites follow (Santa Claus) through that heat source.”
NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.orgwhich follows Santa Claus on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, standard mountain time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD from 6 a.m. to midnight (mountain time) to ask live operators for Santa’s location.