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A misprint, a misdial and one baffled military colonel – could these be the unlikely origins of a festive tracking tradition?

Every year on 24 December Santa sets out in his sleigh and you can track his journey from the comfort of your home – but did you know there’s a surprising (and serendipitous) story behind how this wintery tradition came about? It’s a wild tale of a simple mistake made at a truly turbulent time.

What is the Santa Tracker?

The first Santa Tracker was developed 67 years ago and is currently run by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). The tracker is a combination system of radar and satellites in a geo-synchronous orbit.

On 24 December you can use the Official NORAD Tracks Santa website to follow Santa’s route using the same technology used to track rocket and missile launches – sources in the know say Rudolph’s nose gives off a similar infrared light.

Since the tradition started, a few other Santa trackers have emerged including Google’s own, which launched in 2004. According to NORAD, Santa usually begins his route in the Pacific Ocean and heads west, but the weather can affect his journey.

A cold, Cold context

Before we get to Santa’s geostrophic sleighride, we need to go back in time to a period of geopolitical conflict.

During 1948-1960, the USA became locked into a tense relationship with the Soviet Union following their temporary alliance in WW2. This was a fight for global influence known as the Cold War – not named so for any winter-related reason, but because there was no large-scale military action between the two superpowers. Instead, there were acts of propaganda, espionage and 'proxy wars' between their allies.

This was a frightening time for a lot of the world, as both sides had access to nuclear weapons which had the potential to be catastrophic.

A magical misdial

Nowadays, smartphones make it increasingly difficult to dial the wrong number, but in the mid-1950s the number had to be manually put in every time on a rotary phone. This is an easy enough way to accidentally get a number wrong, as you can’t simply tap back to fix your mistake. However, a typo of a number in a catalogue means misdirected calls galore – which is exactly what happened to Colonel Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), NORAD’s predecessor.

As the story goes, crew commander Colonel Shoup was stationed during the holiday season, when he received a call on his private work number. He expected the voice of his superior, only to be met with the question, “Are you really Santa Claus?” from a small child. After quickly realising it wasn’t a prank, Shoup Ho Ho Ho’d his way through a Christmas wish list before asking to speak to the child’s mother.

The mother said that the Sears Toyland department in her local paper had advertised a hotline to speak to none other than Kris Kringle himself – but had accidentally printed Shoup’s top-secret number instead by one misprinted digit. Shoup assembled staff to handle an influx of calls to Santa Claus while the mistake was rectified.

The story so far

It’s not completely verified whether this really happened, as stories with varying details have since been published. Either way, a bit of Yuletide cheer was welcomed at the time and Colonel Shoup saw an opportunity to pass it onto the public.

CONAD’s public affairs officer launched a report of “one unidentified sleigh, powered by eight reindeer, at 14,000 feet (4,300m), heading 180 degrees”, and announced plans to track Santa on Christmas Eve – however this was intended to be a one-time event.

In 1956, CONAD was asked by the USA’s National Press and United Press International if they would be tracking Santa again, and Shoup agreed to continue what became an annual tradition. NORAD took over the responsibility in 1958, and the Santa hotline has run since. Each year, thousands of calls, emails, and letters are handled by volunteers, including some well-known faces.

Colonel Shoup was from then on known as 'The Santa Colonel', until he passed away in 2009. The official NORAD Santa tracker continues his festive legacy today.

This article was published in December 2022