Christmas online wouldn’t be the same without the NORAD Santa Tracker.
NORAD and its predecessor the Continental Air Defense Command have been tracking Santa every year since 1955 and online since at least 2004. Now, working with Google for the past few years, you can watch Santa’s progress throughout Christmas Eve on the site www.noradsanta.org or choosing from a variety of platforms.
Visiting the site will show you the updated position of Santa on a Google Map, changing regularly to track Santa’s progress across the world. Additional options include tracking him in Google Earth, following him on Twitter or Facebook and viewing pictures as they appear on Picasa. There is also a Google Gadget available and a link to track Santa on your mobile ‘phone.
The NORAD Santa Tracker has grown over the years to harness new technology as it becomes available, from the humble telephone line in 1955 to early web interfaces, Google Earth and now onto social networks.
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As a father, I have always enjoyed showing my daughter Santa’s progress and watching her excitement as he gets closer and closer before she heads off to bed without argument, lest he shows up when she is awake.
This has always been a wonderful Christmas tradition online and every year has seen the site grow to offer more channels for tracking. Despite corporate partners helping out this has never been an overtly commercial message instead opting to promote the excitement that is Christmas.
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