Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Phone lines ready for 2012 NORAD Tracks Santa

Santa Claus

Kaisa Siren, Lehtikuva / AP

Santa Claus gets ready to start the long journey to children all over the world a day before Christmas Eve 2013 at the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi, northern Finland. Rovaniemi is the capital city of Lapland and claims to be the home of Father Christmas.

Volunteers are pulling on their Santa hats, phone lines are set, and tracking screens are ready — NORAD Tracks Santa is primed for its 57th annual goodwill mission.

Santa trackers start taking calls early Monday, telling children _ and some adults _ when Santa is due at their house. The last shift won't end until nearly 24 hours later.

The number is 877-HI-NORAD or 877-446-6723.

Updates will be posted online (http://www.noradsanta.org), on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/noradsanta) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/NoradSanta).

The operation is based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., home of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

NORAD Tracks Santa began in 1955 when a newspaper ad listed the wrong phone number for kids to call Santa. They wound up calling the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy