【Epoch Times News, December 25, 2024】A general from the United States Air Force stated on Tuesday (December 24) that the recent appearance of mysterious drones in New Jersey would not affect Santa Claus’ gift-giving duties. The annual “tracking” tradition of Santa Claus has officially begun.
While General Gregory Guillot of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) assured everyone, Santa Claus and his reindeer were reported to have been in Russia and Iran, having visited countries like Japan, Korea, and Indonesia beforehand.
According to the tracker, as of 1 am Greenwich Mean Time on Christmas Day, Santa Claus was heading north from Brazil towards Guyana.
Santa Claus’ journey this year began a few weeks after the sighting of a mysterious drone in New Jersey, sparking curiosity worldwide despite many of the events being debunked as false reports.
“Of course, we will be monitoring drones and any other threats in the air,” General Guillot told Fox News. “But I expect that drones this year will not pose any difficulty for Santa Claus.”
NORAD’s tradition of tracking Santa Claus dates back to the Cold War era in 1955 when concerns over Soviet threats and nuclear warfare were escalating.
During that time, a Colorado department store mistakenly printed a phone number for children to call Santa Claus, which actually connected to the “Continental Air Defense Command” operation center.
Colonel Harry Shoup, who was the operations director at the time, answered the calls and quickly realized the mix-up with the phone number.
“But he didn’t want to disappoint the children, so he started chatting with them and giving them information about Santa Claus’ location,” said NORAD’s current Operations Director, Major General William Radiff, to Agence France-Presse.
“Then he told his colleagues that they would receive many similar calls that day, ‘Let’s do this’,” and thus, a tradition was born.
This activity has now spread globally, becoming one of the most popular traditions during the Christmas season. Every year, at least 100,000 children call NORAD to inquire about Santa Claus’ whereabouts, while millions follow online in languages from English to Japanese.
Radiff shared that last year, visits to the upgraded NORAD Santa tracking website (noradsanta.org) reached 20.6 million, with over 400,000 calls received. The website features a 3D map showing Santa Claus’ real-time location and a scrolling bar indicating the number of gifts delivered.
“We receive calls from all over the world, as people are very eager to know where Santa Claus is,” he said.
Aside from spreading holiday cheer, NORAD’s primary responsibilities include monitoring and warning operations in airspace and seas, such as tracking Chinese espionage balloons and monitoring missile launches in North Korea — a thought that might cross Santa Claus’ mind as he flies over Pyongyang in his reindeer sleigh.
Infected by the Christmas spirit, Radiff mentioned that NORAD uses infrared sensing satellites to track Santa Claus because “Rudolph’s red nose emits heat and signals, serving as our basis for tracking Santa Claus’ global journey.”
Buzz Aldrin, the second astronaut to walk on the moon, wrote on social media, “NORAD always does an excellent job helping us track Santa Claus in the sky’s navigational direction and position.”
This year, President Biden, like last Christmas, also participated in NORAD’s activities, answering children’s calls and adding a warm touch to the event.