On December 25, 2025, NORAD celebrated the 70th anniversary of the tradition of tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. This year, the annual event, which originated during the Cold War era, introduced a new feature – in addition to calling a dedicated hotline, children could also interact in real-time with volunteers through the NORAD website to track Santa’s whereabouts.
The tradition began in 1955 when a department store advertisement misprinted a phone number, leading a child to accidentally dial the Continental Air Defense Command, which later became NORAD. The officer on duty, Colonel Harry Shoup, decided to play along and assure the child that Santa Claus was airborne, sparking the tradition of tracking Santa each year.
For the past 70 years, NORAD has mobilized personnel every Christmas Eve to answer calls from children around the world and update Santa’s journey in real-time on their website.
This year’s event started at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve and continued until midnight Mountain Time in North America. NORAD provided an interactive map on its website displaying Santa’s current location using radar and satellite systems.
The system consists of 49 facilities located in northern Canada and Alaska that track Santa’s journey from the North Pole around the globe.
While NORAD can track Santa’s flight dynamics, they cannot predict his exact route or arrival times at different locations. A senior NORAD official stated, “NORAD will track Santa, but only Santa knows his exact route, so we can’t predict when or where he will arrive at your home.”
The method NORAD uses to track Santa is similar to their daily monitoring of North American airspace, utilizing polar radar networks and satellite warning missile launches. When Rudolph’s red nose lights up, military personnel can pinpoint his location using infrared sensors on satellites.
On Christmas Eve, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined the event by answering calls on the NORAD Santa hotline from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, engaging with several children. They asked the children about their Christmas wishes and answered various questions.
During one call, a child from North Carolina asked the president if Santa would get upset if they didn’t leave any cookies. President Trump replied, “I don’t think he’d be upset, but I think he’d be very disappointed. You know, Santa Claus, he’s a bit cherubic like that.”
President Trump then asked if the child knew the meaning of “cherubic,” explaining it as being a bit chubby. He joked with a child from Kansas who didn’t want to receive “coal,” saying, “You don’t want clean, beautiful coal?”
He also told a child from Washington who wanted a Kindle that they must be a “smart cookie” and expressed his fondness for Oklahoma to a child from that state.
In a lighthearted explanation from a national security standpoint to another caller, President Trump humorously stated, “We want to make sure that no bad Santas are sneaking into our country.”
President Trump later told reporters that he could spend all day answering calls from children but needed to attend to important matters related to Russia, China, Ukraine, and other issues.
He described the event as “very fun” and said, “This is America.”
NORAD reported receiving over 300,000 calls from children worldwide last Christmas Eve. In addition to the real-time tracking feature on their website, they also created a virtual North Pole Village offering multilingual music, games, and holiday content, transforming the military command center’s technology into a festive experience shared by children worldwide.