Video: 'History of NORAD Tracks Santa'

(Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 1955, around 9:00 p.m. MST) — The Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, found itself fielding phone calls from children wanting to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus today after a newspaper ad mistakenly gave the Center’s number.

The result was a tradition continued by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) of tracking Santa’s location the night before Christmas.