Santa's sleigh flying through the clouds

About this drawing

A flying Santa sleigh streaking across the sky is what millions of kids picture on Christmas Eve, and for decades there has been an official way to follow along: NORAD Tracks Santa.

It all started in 1955 with a typo. A department store ad in Colorado Springs printed a phone number for kids to call Santa, but the number was wrong. The calls rang through to a military air defense command center instead. The colonel on duty, rather than hanging up, played along and told the children where Santa was.

The idea stuck. That command became NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command run jointly by the United States and Canada, and it has tracked Santa every year since. When the internet arrived, the tradition went global, with a website, a map and updates in several languages.

On December 24, volunteers answer calls and messages from children around the world asking where the sleigh is. For many families, checking the tracker before bed is now part of the Christmas Eve routine, right alongside setting out cookies and milk and a carrot or two for the reindeer.

• santa
• sleigh
• reindeer
• christmas eve