Tracking Santa by NORAD

Global tracking website following Father Christmas's flight path

""The tradition of tracking Santa Claus first began in 1955 when a little boy called Norad's predecessor, Continental Air Defence Command, on Christmas Eve and asked where Santa Claus was.

Col. Harry W. Shoup, who answered the unexpected call, didn't want to break the youngster's heart and quickly checked the radars to be able to find the location of Santa.

Shoup and the staff embraced the idea and continued to tell children about what was appearing on their radars as calls, which were due to a wrong number published in an American newspaper ad, continued to come in during the night.

Norad than took over the tradition and began broadcasting Santa's whereabouts in 1958 using just their radars and a large map of North America.

Last year, Norad's Santa tracking centre answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the website, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

Lavallee said Norad uses a chain of radars in northern Canada to tip it off when Santa launches his sleigh.

"We then turn to our satellite systems who can lock on to the heat signature from Rudolph's nose," he said.

Once Norad has locked on to Rudolph, the Santa Cam is turned on to capture photos and video through cameras located around the world.

"If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa," Reddish said.""

NORAD's Santa tracking website