On December 24 1955, the Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper which told children that they could telephone Santa Clause and gave them his telephone number. However, instead of “Santa’ s” number, they printed the number of the Colorado Spring’s Continental Air Defense Center.
Colonel Shoup was on duty that night and decided that he did not want to tear down the dreams of little children. He told his staff to give all the children who called in “the current location for Santa Clause.” On that day, a tradition was born. It was picked up by the North American Aerospace Defense Command when it replaced Colorado Spring’s Continental Air Defense in 1958.
Today, the annual program is called NORAD Tracks Santa. Every year on Christmas Eve, NORAD Tracks Santa tracks Santa’s route as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents across the world. Today, this program relies heavily on volunteers.