Millions Tracked Santa’s Progress with NORAD

The North American Aerospace Defense Command’s NORAD Tracks Santa Program exceeded its own records in the number of calls, emails and social media followers this year.

The program, which began after a misprinted ad in a local paper in 1955, has more than 1,200 volunteers and NORAD staff answering queries on the location of Santa Claus as he circles the globe delivering presents. The volunteers answered over 100,000 calls from children looking for Santa Claus

Military family members and community leaders volunteered to answer phone calls and reply to almost 10,000 emails. The first lady, Michelle Obama, also helped answer NORAD Tracks Santa calls for the fourth year in a row.

The NTS website had almost 20 million unique visitors from 234 countries and territories across the globe and the Facebook page topped 1.45 million “likes.”