Norad Tracks facts

While investigating facts about Norad Tracks, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 1955, Sears published a phone number that kids could use to "call Santa". However, due to a misprint, the number Sears printed redirected to NORAD's top secret emergency line. Rather than having the ad pulled, NORAD decided to "track" Santa's progress, which they continue to do to this day.

The NORAD Tracks Santa tradition started when a misprinted Sears ad for calling Santa directed to NORAD instead.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 16 of the best facts about Norad Tracks I managed to collect.

1. NORAD started tracking Santa Claus in 1955 after a department store placed an ad for kids to call Santa and accidentally gave out the wrong number, a NORAD hotline connected to the Pentagon. The Colonel on duty received dozens of calls from kids and he played along.

2. Why Santa is Being Tracked By an Aerospace Defense Agency - “first started in 1955... department store printed a number for kids to call Santa, but messed up and listed the number for the commander in chief’s operations hotline at NORAD’s predecessor... the tradition has stuck ever since.”

3. "NORAD tracks Santa", began with CONAD in 1955. A Sears ad misprinted a number that was for children to call "Santa" to find out his location. Instead, it directed children to CONAD, the precursor to NORAD. They played along, and to this day it's staffed by unpaid volunteers every year.

4. NORAD began tracking Santa after a newspaper ran a 'call Santa' ad with the wrong phone number. The number led to the phone at US Air Defence Command, and a Colonel who decided to play along.

5. NORAD annually tracks Santa's progress every Christmas because of confusion from a misprinted Ad back in 1955 where a child called asking for Santa and the Colonel who answered played along as he didn't want to crush a young childs dreams.

6. Every year, NORAD has a fun thing where it tracks Santa's flight as he delivers presents every Christmas night.

7. NORADs tradition of tracking Santa started in 1955 due to a misprint in a local paper that directed childrens calls to Santa to a red phone at Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

8. NORAD track santa started as a mistake; SEARS misprinted a number they advertised for children to call santa, and instead gave children the number for a NORAD base's presidential red telephone

What is true about norad tracks?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

NORAD's annual tracking of Santa began in 1955 when a Colorado Sears store had a poster encouraging kids to call Santa which had a misprinted phone number that instead called NORAD. the officer in duty instructed those receiving calls to update kids on Santa's location.

The tradition of NORAD Tracks Santa began after a Sears ad with a hotline to Santa was misprinted, accidentally giving out the phone number of the local air defense command in Colorado Springs (CONAD). The Colonel on duty ordered his staff to play along. - source

There's an actual call center in Colorado Springs run by NORAD with over 1700 volunteers and 60 corporate sponsors to field phone calls about tracking Santa Claus. The program has features that allow people to use OnStar, Siri, & Cortana to ask where Santa is at any given moment.