It seems everybody has their eye on Santa Claus. Google isn’t the only one keeping an eye on Santa’s whereabouts. 461 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, otherwise known as NORAD, has been keeping track of Santas December 24 trip around the world.
This all began back in 1955 went to Sears advertisement mistakenly included NORAD’s phone number to call Santa. According to NORAD’s website, the number dial directly into the commander-in-chief is operational hotline.
“The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole,” says NORAD. “Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.”
One of NORAD’s many contributors to the Santa tracker program is Bing. While Microsoft has released an official announcement this year, the Bing spokesperson said the following comments would ask about the contributions to the 2016 NORAD Santa Tracker:
“Microsoft is happy to support the North American Aersopace Defense Command (NORAD) tracker for Santa’s Christmas Eve flight once again for the 61st consecutive year. Millions of youngsters and kids-at-heart visit the site each December to track Santa on his global journey, making it the perfect blend of Christmas tradition and technology.”
Not only is NORAD counting down the days until Santa’s next big flight, NORAD Santa village website is offering a full host of holiday themed activities which includes movies and books to a gift shop where you can get a personalized NORAD Santa tracker certificate, A letter from Santa, among other merchandise.
In addition to helping out NORAD track Santa, Bing has decorated its home page with an Advent Calendar: Bing home page gets 31 holiday-themed surprises for each day of December.
Source – Amy Gesenhues