NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas themed entertainment program, dating back to 1955, produced under the auspices of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Every year on Christmas Eve, NORAD intends to track Santa as he leaves the North Pole and rewards children all over the world.
This program is in the editorial tradition of September 1897 "Yes, Virginia, there's Santa Claus" in New York Sun .
Video NORAD Tracks Santa
History and overview
Origin
On December 24, 1948, the United States Air Force issued a communique claiming that a "clean early warning radar to the north" had detected "an unidentified sleigh, powered by eight deer, at 14,000 feet [4,300 meters], to 180 degrees." The Associated Press delivered this "report" to the general public. This is the first time the United States Army has issued a statement about tracking Santa Claus sled on Christmas Eve, even though it is a one-time event, not repeated over the next few years.
The program originated before the actual formation of NORAD, as an annual event on December 24, 1955. According to legend, a Sears department store placed an advertisement in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a newspaper that told the children that they could call Santa Claus and include the < i> ME 2-6681 . The call allegedly came to Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center because a single digit was misprinted.
In some versions of the story, the call goes to the "red phone" hotline that connects CONAD directly to the command authority at the Strategic Air Command. Colonel Harry Shoup, who was the commanding Crew Commander, answered the first call and told his staff to give all the children who later called "the current location" for Santa Claus.
A more accurate description of the 1955 event seems to be that on November 30, a child trying to reach Santa on the hotline number provided in the Sears ad misrepresented the number and instead reached Shoup at his desk at CONAD. Shoup responds harshly to the child, and no more Santa Claus-related calls go to CONAD.
However, when a Shoup staff member puts a picture of Santa Claus on a board used to track unidentified aircraft in December, Shoup sees a public relations opportunity for CONAD, and he asks CONAD officer Colonel Barney Oldfield to tell the CONAD press it's tracking sleigh Santa Claus. In his release to the press, Oldfield added that "CONAD, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force will continue to track and keep Santa and his sled on its way to and from the US against possible attacks from unbelievers at Christmas."
Over the following years, the legend of how the annual event began to change. In 1961, Shoup's version of the story was that he never got angry at the boy, but instead identified himself as Santa Claus when he talked to the kid on the phone. Shoup and his family then modify the story further, adding that the boy has turned the "red phone" - an impossibility, because the hotline is connected with the Strategic Air Command by a closed cable, and no one can dial to from outside - better than a regular phone on Shoup's desk, that it was a misprint in the ad that made the boy call him, not the child who mispronounced the number, and that the phone flood came from the children on Christmas Eve 1955 from just one child on November 30th.
Shoup had no intention of repeating the action in 1956, but Oldfield told him that the Associated Press and United Press International were waiting for reports that CONAD was tracking Santa again. Shoup agrees that Oldfield should announce it again, and an annual tradition is born.
In 1958, the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) took over the reporting responsibilities of CONAD, and reporting became more complicated as time went on. On December 24, 1960, for example, NORAD's northern command post in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, provided a routine update of the sleigh operated by "S. Claus" identified as "no doubt friendly". During the night, NORAD reported that the sled had made an emergency landing on the ice of Hudson Bay, where the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) intercepter was sent to investigate finding Santa Claus wrapped around Dancer's femoral front leg, after which the RCAF plane escorted him when he continued his journey.
Finally, NORAD, renamed North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1981, publicly publicizes the hotline number for the general public to call for updates on the progress of Santa Claus.
Recent history
Today, NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible. Each volunteer handles about forty phone calls per hour, and the team usually handles more than 12,000 e-mails and over 70,000 calls from over two hundred countries and territories. Most of these contacts occur for twenty-five hours from 2 am on 24 to 3 am on December 25th. A website called NORADSanta.org was established to allow project access for internet users.
Google Analytics has been used since December 2007 to analyze website traffic. As a result of this analysis information, the program can project and measure volunteer staff, telephone equipment and computer equipment for Christmas Eve. Volunteers include NORAD military and civilian personnel.
In 2014, NORAD answered over 100,000 phone calls. By 2015, more than 1,200 US and Canadian military personnel volunteered to be telephone line staff.
Maps NORAD Tracks Santa
Website and other media
The NORAD Tracks Santa program always utilizes various media. From 1950 to 1996, these were telephone lines, newspapers, radio, records and television. Many television newscasts in North America feature NORAD Tracks Santa as part of their weather updates on Christmas Eve.
From 1997 until now, the program has had a published internet presence. As mobile media and social media have become popular and widespread as a direct method of communication, these newer media have also been adopted by the program. The website layout of NORAD Tracks Santa and its web pages has changed from 1997 to the present day due to changes in internet technology, and changes in partners and sponsors for a particular year. In September 2008, NORAD started a Twitter account, @NORADSanta, as part of its social media presence.
Between 2004 and 2009, people who visited the NORAD Trail Trace site were told they could "track" Santa on Google Earth. They are given a link to download Google Earth, and then KMZ files to download. From 2009 to 2011, tracking in Google Earth has been done from the NORAD Santa site, and there are no KMZ files for Google Earth anymore. In 2011, iOS and Android apps were introduced, featuring updates and interactive games similar to Angry Birds .
From mid-January to November 30, when someone arrives at the Santa Tracks NORAD website, someone is greeted with a message to return on December 1 to "track Santa with NORAD". During December, someone found the NORAD Tracks Santa website with all the features available. On Christmas Eve, the website of the NORAD Tracks Santa website is generally updated hourly, midnight in different time zones. The video "Santa Cam" features a CGI Santa Claus image flying over a famous landmark. Each video is accompanied by a voice over the end of the 2011 season, usually performed by NORAD personnel, providing some facts about the city or country being portrayed. In 2012 the voice overs are replaced with music performed by the US Air Force Band. The sound overs back in the 2013 season.
Voice-overs celebrities have also been used for years. For London video "Santa Cam", British television personality and celebrity Jonathan Ross did voice-over for 2005 to 2007 and former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr shared the same video in 2003 and 2004. In 2002, Aaron Carter voted for three videos.
The locations and landmarks depicted in several videos of "Santa Cam" have changed over the years. In 2009, twenty-nine videos of "Santa Cam" were posted on the website. In previous years, twenty-four to twenty-six videos were posted.
Since 2012, Analytical Graphics, Inc. have used their Cesium platform to create 3D maps to visualize Santa's location with more accurate global terrain and satellite imagery than ever before. NORAD reported that for Christmas 2013, it recorded 19.58 million unique visitors to its website on Christmas Eve, and 1,200 volunteers answered 117,371 calls. Through social media, he has 146,307 Twitter followers and 1.45 million "likes" on Facebook. That year, NORAD contracted with Bing Maps to provide 2D map tracking, ending a five-year contract with Google.
In 2014, NORAD recorded nearly 20 million visits to its Santa Tracker.
Sponsorship and publicity
NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship, and is financed by American or Canadian taxpayers.
The US military unit has provided publicity for the program, including the Northeast Air Defense Sector of the New York Air National Guard and the US Naval Information Bureau (NIB) 1118 in Fort Carson, Colorado, as well as the Canadian Armed Forces.
Other US federal agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have helped publish the service. First Lady Michelle Obama has participated in this program every year since 2009, answering phone calls.
According to Gerry Bowler, a history professor at the University of Manitoba, the NORAD Tracks Santa program is "one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa Claus story that has stalled." Bowler stated that the program "takes an important element of the Santa Claus story - its journey on Christmas Eve - and sees it through the lens of technology," thus bringing Santa Claus mythology into the modern era.
See also
- Christmas Cessation Operation, US Air Force annual air blow over Micronesia
References
External links
- Official website
- NORAD Tracing Santa's channel on YouTube
- NORAD Santa Path: Santa & amp; News Report Holiday Music Selections (1964 LP), produced by NORAD Directorate of Public Affairs
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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