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Thursday, December 24, 2009
Check out Norad tonight as they Track Santa
As Santa nears North America Norad will be tracking his progress. The North American Aerospace Defense follows Santa each year. Using Radar and other technology to track his progress and report it on the world wide web.
This year they can also check out Santa's village and see how well the elves are getting on with making presents.
Norad volunteers are on hand on Christmas Eve to answer e-mails about Father Christmas's journey at noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.
Norad is a military organisation that is responsible for the aerospace and maritime defence of the US and Canada.
The tradition of tracking Father Christmas goes back to a misprint in a Colorado newspaper advertisement in 1955.
The hotline to Santa promised by the paper actually connected to what was known then as the Continental Air Defense Command (Conad).
As more phone calls came in, the commander on the other end of the phone started to pretend he was Santa and the tradition continued in 1958 when Conad became Norad.
Last year volunteers received 75,000 phone calls and around over 6,000 e-mails from 200 countries.
The system works, according to Norad, because Rudolph the reindeer's famous nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch.
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