WASHINGTON — Santa Claus has wrapped up his journey this year to deliver presents to homes across the globe. While his trip went smoothly again, the website for NORAD's Santa Tracker had a bit of trouble keeping up early on.
NORAD tracked Santa on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, just like they've done for more than six decades. Shortly after the live updates were supposed to begin at 6 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, people from all around the world began noticing the map was blank.
The official NORAD Santa Tracker Facebook page explained that they were having some website issues. After about 90 minutes, everything had been sorted out and the map was live.
According to NORAD's Santa Tracker, a total of 7,623,693,263 gifts were delivered this year.
While the Santa Tracker website has been online for several weeks, the real show gets underway on the morning of Christmas Eve. Starting at 4 a.m. Eastern on Dec. 24, NORAD began tracking Santa with updates from around the world.
Callers could also dial in throughout the day to find out where Santa is on his journey. Lt. Sean Carter, the NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager, said volunteers took more than 53,000 calls in 2021, though that's well below the pre-COVID peak of 150,000 calls in 2019. The volunteer staffing has had to be reduced the past couple of years due to pandemic concerns.
The military command has been fielding calls since 1955, when Air Force Col. Harry Shoup — the commander on duty at NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command — fielded a call from a child who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a newspaper department store ad, thinking she was calling Santa.
A fast-thinking Shoup quickly assured his caller that he was. And the tradition began.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden also participated in the tradition last year, answering calls to the Santa tracking service. It is a longstanding tradition for first ladies, but the president joined in 2021 as well.
Today, most early calls come from Japan and Europe, and as the day goes on the callers from the U.S. and Canada climb.
In addition to the phone center and online site, Amazon Alexa users can ask for Santa's location using the NORAD Tracks Santa skill on Dec. 24 and OnStar subscribers can use the OnStar service to locate Santa.
NORAD’s mission is to watch the skies above North America for any potential threats. Come early Christmas Eve, the Santa operation begins when a cluster of radar stations in northern Canada and Alaska pick up an infrared signature emanating from Rudolph’s nose. NORAD’s array of geostationary satellites above the Earth monitor the journey.
It’s all shown on large, “unclassified” display screens in a festively decorated command post at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. Masked volunteers sit at tables equipped with telephones, garland, miniature Christmas trees, plenty of caffeine-laden candy and coffee — and hand sanitizer.
“We Have the Watch,” is NORAD’s military-mission motto.
And when it comes to Santa, NORAD adds:
“Santa calls the shots. We just track him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.