It's That Time of Year

Just a short post this morning about a nice tradition that has taken on a new life on the internet. Many government agencies spend more money than I care to know about tracking things that fly through the air.

One agency, NORAD, has continued a tradition that began as a misprinted phone number. Almost 60 years ago SEARs created a promotion for children to call Santa. Unfortunately to the children calling the number it wasn't a direct line to Santa but the hotline number to a red phone at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), which later became NORAD. The person at the other end instead of hanging up voluntarily started tracking Santa for all the children who called. Thus began the tradition of tracking Santa at NORAD.

Over the last ten years, NORAD has taken the tracking online and provided video for children all over the world to watch and track Santa on Christmas Eve.  It's a great way to share the travels of the Christmas spirit as it travels around the globe, not to mention teaching some geography! You can view Santa's track on the website or even Google Earth.

Happy holidays to you all and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.