The Christmas tradition has an almost global reach: children from all over the world follow it Santa Claus as he sweeps the earth, bearing gifts and defying time.
At least 100,000 children visit every year North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online in nine languages, from English to Japanese.
On any other night, NORAD scans the skies for potential threats, like last year’s Chinese spy balloon. But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs ask themselves questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?”
“There are screams and giggles and laughter,” said Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer.
Sommers often says on the call that everyone needs to sleep before Santa comes and encourages parents to say, “Did you hear what he said?” We have to go to bed early.”
NORAD’s annual Santa Pursuit has been around since the Cold War, before the Ugly Sweater Parties and the Mariah Carey classics. The tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns like in 2018 and this year.
Here’s how it all started and why the phones keep ringing.
The origin story is reminiscent of Hollywood
It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper ran a Sears ad encouraging children to call Santa Claus and providing a phone number.
A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada initiative to detect potential enemy attacks. Tensions with the Soviet Union increased, as did fears of nuclear war.
Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a quiet voice that began reciting a Christmas wish list.
“He talked some more, took a deep breath and then said, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa Claus,'” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999.
When Shoup realized that the boy would no longer be able to come up with an explanation, he called out in a deep, cheerful voice and replied: “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Were you a good boy?”
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Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears had mistakenly printed the top secret number. He hung up, but soon the phone rang again and a young girl was reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said.
In the pre-digital age, the agency used an 18-by-24-meter plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. One employee jokingly pulled Santa Claus and his sleigh across the North Pole.
The tradition was born.
“Note to the children,” began an AP report from Colorado Springs on December 23, 1955. “On Friday, Santa was assured of safe entry into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.”
In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article states that Santa Claus was protected from possible attacks by “those who don’t believe in Christmas.”
Is the origin story nonsense?
Some grinning journalists have scoffed at Shoup’s story, wondering whether a misprint or poor choice prompted the boy’s call.
In 2014, the tech news site Gizmodo cited a December 1, 1955 International News Service report about a child’s call to Shoup. The article, published in the Pasadena Independent, said the child mixed up 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 harsher than he should – given the time of year:
“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 article.
In 2015, The Atlantic magazine questioned the flood of calls to the secret number, but noted that Shoup had a flair for public relations.
Aside from phone calls, Shoup was actually 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 extinguished. But Shoup said, “Just let it go,” citing public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost the morale of troops and the public alike.
“It made the military look good — like we weren’t all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa,” he said.
Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that led to the calls.
“And later he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People say, ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having that sense of humor.'”
A rare addition to the story of Santa Claus
According to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010, the tradition of NORAD is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Christmas story that has endured.
Advertising campaigns or films attempt to “hijack” Santa Claus for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, on the other hand, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and looks at it through a technological lens.
In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham said NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada – known as the Northern Warning System – were the first to spot Santa Claus.
It leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. From there it moves west and follows the night.
“This is when the satellite systems we use every day to track and identify targets of interest begin to take effect,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s glowing red nose radiates a lot of heat. And so these satellites track (Santa Claus) through this heat source.”
NORAD has an app and a website, www.noradsanta.orgwhich follows Santa Claus from 4 a.m. to midnight, Mountain Time, on Christmas Eve. From 6 a.m. to midnight (Mountain Time), people can call live staff at 1-877-HI-NORAD for Santa’s location.
