Track Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve thanks to the team at NORAD, whose full name is North American Aerospace Defense Command. Ever since 1955, they’ve kept track of Santa’s sleigh pulled by eight reindeer led by Rudolph with his nose so bright to light the way.
Impatient kids used to have to telephone NORAD to find out Santa’s flight path. But Santa has kept up with technology, and now the sleigh has GPS, so NORAD can track him more easily. Between now and Christmas Eve, you can explore Santa’s Village at the North Pole, play holiday games and even watch holiday movies, thanks to NORAD Tracks Santa.
It’s not all fun and games. There’s a link to holiday traditions around the world, so you learn that in Germany, the celebrations begin on Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day, when children place a shoe or boot by the fireplace. That’s probably the origin of the American tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace or something similar, because most of us don’t live in places with fireplaces anymore.
Like Santa, the NORAD site can speak to children in many languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.
Also, like Santa, who won’t reveal his list of who has been naughty and who has been nice this year, NORAD does not tell us its top-secret tracking techniques, although we’ve heard it’s a combination of radar, satellites, Santa-Cams, fighter jets, and the most important, the infrared signal in Rudolph’s nose.
You can also use modern technology to make your holiday wishes part of the confetti that floats down on the folks in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Add your wish to the Times Square Wishing Wall.
Where’s Santa? Everywhere, because he’s a real ecoXplorer.
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