Friday, December 23, 2005

NORAD Continues to Track Santa---after 50 Years

Here’s a feel good story on government surveillance that everyone with a little kid’s soul can appreciate. Since 1955, Santa’s every move on Christmas Eve has been tracked by the government and that information relayed on to anyone who calls and asks for it. You can follow along by either checking the Track Santa website, calling NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain base 1-888-HI-NORAD, emailing NORAD at tracking@noradsanta.org or emailing Santa at northpole@officialsantamail.com.

I remember riding home from the annual family get together on Christmas Eve and listening to the radio announcers interrupting their broadcasts with constant updates as to Santa’s location. The idea was we had to be home and in bed before he could come to our house. I would have been 6 when NORAD started tracking Old St. Nick and my sister was 4. So I assume the radio broadcasts were somewhere around 1958-59 the first time. We would have been 9 and 7 at that juncture.

No comments: