Norad Tracks Santa 2008 - With Google's Help

Norad Tracks Santa 2008 - With Google's Help

Follow Santa as he delivers presents around the world.

Like last year, the Norad Tracks Santa site will open its web site on December 1st allowing kids everywhere to watch the countdown to Christmas Eve. The web site will feature fun holiday games and activities daily until December 24th. And, like last year, the official application to watch Santa fly around the world on Christmas Eve will be Google Earth.

The NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after an errant phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested – the whereabouts of Santa Claus. This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958. This Christmas marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa Claus as he goes around the world delivering presents.

In 2006 Google created a 3D game in Google Earth where you had to find Christmas presents somewhere on the Earth for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. They had Santa's North Pole home and his sleigh rendered in 3D, and then the Santa tracker was linked to the Norad data. Google also used Google Earth to track Santa in 2005. Last year (2007) was the first year Google's mapping applications were the official ones used by Norad for following Santa on the Internet.