How Colorado’s NORAD Santa Tracker Was Born

Growing up in Colorado back a few (plus) decades ago, I remember this time of year how all the TV and radio stations would constantly refer to NORAD and their Santa Tracker each and every Christmas eve. I remember feeling really proud that such fine, heroic work was being done right here in our state.

What I didn't realize at the time was how or when it came to be, and now, nearly 70 years later it's stronger than ever!

The NORAD Santa Tracker is more than just a website, of course, considering it was created long before people even had access to computers let alone the internet.

The story goes that back in 1955, about a year after President Eisenhower had established a hotline to NORAD for the purposes of alerting the command center of an impending attack on North America, one night before Christmas the phone mysteriously rang.

Startled - because the line was only for emergencies - the commanding officer of the post, Colonel Harry Shoup answered the phone and was greeting with a kid's voice asking "is this Santa Claus?"

Shoup obviously responded no, and thought it was a joke until the boy on the phone started to cry. Being a dad of four himself, Shoup instinctually slid into the role of Santa, then ended up speaking with the boy's mother. The mom informed him that the number had been printed in a Sears holiday ad as a typo, with the NORAD number being one digit off the actual Santa line that Sears had created.

Sure enough, kids from all over began calling and Colonel Shoup assigned a couple of airman to man the phones. Controllers in the command center jokingly put an image of a sleigh and reindeer up on the radar screen, which Shoup thought was hilarious and let them keep it up there.

Then he had a great idea. He called a radio station and said "this is the commander of the Combat Alert Center and we have an unidentified flying object. It looks like a sleigh!"

Soon other stations started calling him for updates every hour... and the NORAD Santa Tracker was born.

Shoup passed away in 2009, and over the years, he collected and kept the letters from kids sent to him from all over the world. His family believes that the Santa Tracker was the thing in his life he was most proud of.

In 2024, the Santa Tracker is next level. You can access it on their website, of course. You can download their app. Or you can simply call NORAD for updates on the phone at 877-HI-NORAD.