The Daily News - Serving Galveston County since 1842

DECEMBER
24

12:36 PM in Christmas

By TJ Aulds | Share | Permalink | Add Comments

A tradition that began thanks to the mis-print of a phone number in 1955, was setting records Saturday as volunteers at NORAD tracked the progress of Santa.

From the Associated Press:

Volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado were fielding 4,000 calls an hour Saturday morning, on pace to break a record. Also, Santa's NORAD Facebook page exceeded 840,000 "likes" by midmorning. Last year, Santa had 716,000 "likes." Volunteers at NORAD Tracks Santa said kids started calling at 4 a.m. Saturday to find out where Santa was.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been telling anxious children about Santa's whereabouts ever year since 1955. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline, but the number had a typo, and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

The officers on duty played along and began sharing reports on Santa's progress. It's now a deep-rooted tradition at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors the North American skies and seas from a control center at Peterson.

And now you can monitor Santa online, your mobile phone, via Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus: and by phone (877) 446-6723.

About TJ Aulds

T.J. Aulds is mainland editor for The Daily News. He is a former producer with Channel 11's KHOU.com in Houston and a former editor of the Texas City Sun. Aulds was a 2007 recipient of the Jim Lehrer Award for Journalism.

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