The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, launches its annual Santa locator tool today for keiki who want to track when jolly old Saint Nick will reach the Aloha State.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, launches its annual Santa locator tool today for keiki who want to track when jolly old Saint Nick will reach the Aloha State.
The NORAD Tracks Santa website — noradsanta.org — went live Dec. 1. It’s manned each year by hundreds of volunteers and staff on Christmas Eve, who answer calls from children around the world and track Santa’s GPS coordinates via a command center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Santa’s exact route isn’t known — nor is it clear exactly when he’ll pass over Hawaii — but he generally starts around the international date line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west. Children are advised to be in bed by 9 p.m. HST and Santa can arrive at any point until about midnight.
This year marks the 66th year NORAD’s Santa tracker program has taken place. It reportedly began after an advertisement misprinted a phone number for children to call Santa direct. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang to the crew commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center (now NORAD). The commander played along and the tradition has continued ever since.
The program has become more sophisticated through the years and now features an entire social media team that posts Facebook videos as well as “Santa Cam” images via radar satellites. The tracker website also features games and activities in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
