For decades, NORAD- North American Aerospace Defence Command- has been tracking Santa’s progress as he leaves the North Pole and flies south to deliver presents around the world.
NORAD monitors the northern airspace, much of it Canadian and the tradition began back with NORAD’s predecessor the Continental Air Defence Command (CONAD).
In 1955, a Colorado company had a promotion for children to call them and speak to Santa, but the advertisemen had misprinted the number, and calls went to CONAD’s operations hotline.
The director had his staff check their radar for indications of Santa flying south and the tradition was born.
In this year’s animated video promo, Santa is temporarily accompanied by two Canadian CF-18 military jets as they fly over the Arctic.
That has upset a Boston-based children’s advocacy group. The “Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood”, says that brings militarism and violence to a peacefull tradition. Campaign spokesperson Josh Grolin told CNN, that it was a “backdoor way for the military to market to children”
A NORAD spokesperson insisted the fighters in the video are unarmed, saying they’re Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18s, with a large external fuel tank under the belly that might look like a bomb. The wing racks that would carry bombs or missiles are empty, he explained.
The flap has driven lots of viewers to the video – over 350,000 on YouTube this week.
Last year, global monitoring of Santa’s voyage logged 114,000 phone calls to NORAD, 1.2 million Facebook followers and 129,000 Twitter followers.
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