Want to know where Santa is right now?  Every year, NORAD tracks Santa’s progress, and this year, you can follow along with the official NORAD Santa Tracker, powered by Google Earth!  Right now Santa is over the border of Russia and China, and he seems to be making good time.

The tradition of NORAD tracking Santa Claus’s flight over the Earth dates back to 1955, according to this BBC article.  Due to a misprint in a Colorado advertisement, people phoning a Santa hotline were actually calling the Continental Air Defense Command, the predecessor to NORAD.  An official at CONAD took the calls and pretended to be Santa Claus, and a holiday tradition was born!

These days, tracking Santa is high tech.  They track Rudolph’s red nose via NORAD radar, there’s an email address where you can ask questions of NORAD volunteers, there’s a Facebook page, Picasa photo album, and even an official NORAD Santa Twitter to track the progress and give interesting facts along the way.  That’s not counting the browser plug-ins!

Tags: Santa Tracker, NORAD tracks Santa, radar tracks santa, google earth, google earth tracking santa, santa’s location, CONAD, NORAD, Santa tracking tradition

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