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Santa Tracking through APPS and online map is a fun interactive family opportunity after school gets out!  We’re trying it ourselves for the first year so here’s what we found – please share your experiences and comment to guide us all in the right direction! 

NORAD calls itself “official Santa Tracker” and we think this organization deserves the credit . . . after all, for 60 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight. The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on the tradition of tracking Santa. Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to phone calls and emails from children all around the world. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Millions of people who want to know Santa’s whereabouts now visit the NORAD Tracks Santa® website. Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source to provide updates on Santa’s journey.

Other Santa Tracking sites include:

Tech Leader Google has a very cute site almost like an Advent Calendar with a learning activity for each day called Santa Tracker

TrackingSanta.net is a commercial-free, family friendly service provided through a partnership between SantaUpdate.comKringle Radio and My Merry Christmas.com, the World’s Largest Christmas community.

You can email Santa Claus and see yours live on this website https://www.emailsanta.com

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