On Christmas Eve this year, Michelle Obama lent a helping hand in tracking Santa via GPS – a task which is normally undertaken by NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The “Track Santa” program, which has been active since 1958, currently uses GPS satellites to track Santa’s movements from the North Pole to all the corners of the globe. The website, NORADsanta.org, gets millions of hits every year. The live operations center, which receives phone calls from children asking where Santa is, staffs 1,200 individuals.

First by Phone, Now By Internet and GPS

NORAD’s “Track Santa” program started out being phone-only. Children could call a manned center and hear where Santa was on Christmas eve for four decades, from 1958 until 1998, when NORAD’s “Track Santa” program introduced both GPS tracking and a dynamic Internet website. This has ostensibly made the “Track Santa” program more accurate.

Mrs. Obama’s Helping Hand

Mrs. Obama’s role in tracking santa was to watch the GPS tracking movements from NORAD’s Santa tracking service and to communicate these movements to curious children on the phone.

“You know that Santa only comes after boys and girls have gone to sleep, no matter where he is in the world. So Santa won’t be at your house until you’re fast asleep, okay?” Mrs. Obama told the children who called, according to ABC News.
During Obama’s time on post at NORAD, Santa was visiting Africa and Europe, according to the GPS tracking devices. As she looked at her printout, she continued, “The radar shows that it looks like the vehicle is being pulled by all nine reindeer and it’s pretty full of toys. He’s moving at a pretty good clip. The weather looks good, so there shouldn’t be any problems with him getting the toys around,” Obama concluded to the children.

Article Written by Greg Minton