This year the North American Aerospace Defense Command is celebrating 60 years of monitoring Santa Claus’ journey around the world. The website, which has already launched, features the North Pole Village with a countdown, games, music and more.
In particular, the website highlights the program over the past 60 years with frequently asked questions, including how the tradition began in 1955. For those who don’t know the story, it started with a misprinted phone number in a Sears advertisement telling kids to call Santa. The number instead directed them to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” Colonel Harry Shoup, the Director of Operations at the time, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa, and from then on kids who called were given updates on his location.
