PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command’s NORAD Tracks Santa Program exceeded its own records in the number of calls, emails and Facebook and Twitter followers on December 24.
The program, which began after a misprinted ad in a local paper in 1955, has volunteers and NORAD staff answering queries on the location of Santa Claus as he circles the globe delivering presents on December 24.
More than 1,200 volunteers in the 23-hour NORAD Tracks Santa operations center answered nearly 102,000 calls this year from children looking for Santa Claus (up over 20,000 from 2010). Volunteers ranged from Peterson AFB family members volunteering their time to First Lady Michelle Obama, who for the second year, answered NORAD Tracks Santa calls from Hawaii. They also answered 7,721 emails, which is also an increase from last year’s count.
The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, had 18.9 million unique visitors access the site from 220 countries and territories across the globe during the month of December, while fans of the NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page neared 1 million followers. More than 101,000 people also followed Santa’s progress on Twitter, which is nearly double the number from the previous year. The NORAD Tracks Santa site, featuring ultra-cool Google Earth maps and other interactive games, also offered photos, videos and lots of fun facts about Santa and his reindeer throughout the month of December.
New this year was the addition of free apps in the Apple Store and in the Android Market. Parents and children were able to countdown the days until Santa’s take off on their smart phones and track his progress. The app received a total of 1.4 million downloads.
“Throughout the year the men and women of NORAD work hard to provide aerospace security for North America, but for this one night every year, we are able to bring the magic of Christmas to children around the world,” said Jamie Graybeal, deputy Chief of Staff for Communication at NORAD. “We at NORAD are honored to be a part of so many peoples’ holiday traditions. Thank you to our many volunteers and our contributors for making this program possible, and we look forward to doing it again next year.”