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Annual NORAD Santa Tracker Up And Running

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gentleman-get-me-the-president-on-the-horn dept.

SumDeusExMachina writes: "NORAD is at it once again folks! You can track Santa as he travels across the globe via a nifty Real Media stream." Apparently, this guy has been making some changes up North, too, including stealth technology, so I hope the radar tracks.

2 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NORAD has better things to do by sunspot42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Er, wrong. Santa Claus is an Americanization of Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was one of the early Christians (he participated in the first Council of Nicaea), and went on to become one of the most famous and well regarded saints in all of Europe. His reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy.

    Although the trappings associated with the modern Santa Claus legend date to the late 1800's and the American poem "Twas The Night Before Christmas" (flying reindeer, sleigh, chimney sliding and the red coat were all original creations of that poem), the concept is completely Christian in origin and far older, dating back almost to the time of Christ.

    Now, one could argue that Christmas *itself* isn't a Christian tradition, per se, since the early Christians simply co-opted the Roman holiday Saturnalia, a holiday far more like our modern Christmas than Christmas itself was up until about a hundred years ago, and one which involved festivals, a state holiday, a feast, lights and the exchange of gifts. Everything old . . .

  2. As noded into E2... by teleny · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The NORAD Santa Report owes its existence to a typo in a local newspaper in Omaha,
    Nebraska. In the mid-Fifties, a local department store had an actor impersonating Santa Claus,
    that kids could call on Christmas Eve. (Presumably, the guy told the kids that "he'd be right over" and tell them to get to bed early.)

    Unfortunately, the number had one digit wrong, which yuppers, patched the rugrats into NORAD.
    The somewhat amused personnel, married and with kids themselves (as per regulation,
    according to then-current psychological theory) took to saying "Well, we're an Air Force base, not
    Santa Claus, but yes, we're tracking Santa right now."

    A few winters of this were enough to get everyone's story straight, and to retire the number (except for Santa reports). In 1958, they began releasing live reports to TV and radio stations, casting high-ranking (and often retired) officers asuld get a "full NORAD welcome" (of escorting state-of-the-art fighter jets) if seen over US airspace. Creepy, when you think of it...

    --
    teleny, friend of cats.