orth American Aerospace Defense Command<\/a>, a joint U.S.-Canadian operation that protects the skies over both countries, has tracked the fabled jolly old man since a child mistakenly called the base in 1955, asking to speak to Santa.<\/p>\nThe base in Colorado Springs, used to monitor for signs of a nuclear attack. But this year, officers at the base are making sure the coronavirus pandemic won\u2019t sideline Santa Claus and his reindeer from, as the storybooks say, delivering gifts to children around the world.<\/p>\n
While the Santa tracking operations center usually has around 1,500 volunteers fielding calls from around the world, this year they have scaled back because of COVID-19 concerns with few people in the center and many taking calls remotely. With the smaller operation, they have also added a voicemail for callers who don\u2019t reach an operator.<\/p>\n
But as cases continue to rise across the globe, it begs the question: Will Santa be able to bring our gifts to us safely?<\/p>\n
\u201cSanta Claus has been doing this for many, many years, as you know, and he\u2019s been through pandemics before and challenges all around the globe. I\u2019m one hundred percent confident that Santa Claus knows exactly how to stay safe,\u201d VanHerck said.<\/p>\n
This photo provided by The North American Aerospace Defense Command shows the Santa Tracker on Thursday. This is the 65th year for the U.S.-Canadian operation that has tracked the jolly old man since a child mistakenly called the base asking to speak to Santa.<\/span>NORAD photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Despite a unique Christmas season, the NORAD Commander said they don\u2019t expect any disruptions to the storybook Santa\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect Santa Claus will be on time, arrives somewhere between 9:00 p.m. and midnight to each house. I would encourage all children to make sure they\u2019re in bed by 9:00 p.m. so Santa Claus can stay on time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His other important message: You can still leave out cookies.<\/p>\n
This is VanHerck\u2019s first year tracking Santa. The commander said it\u2019s an honor to be able to interact with people from around the world and be part of a tradition that spans generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to being the Commander of NORAD, I didn\u2019t have an idea of really how popular this really is and how many people have done this for decades from the time they were children until now,\u201d VanHerck said. \u201cAnd so to continue that tradition is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
VanHerck said he hopes that tracking Santa will bring happiness to families during an unprecedented holiday season and after months of being stuck at home \u2014 especially for children attending school remotely and unable to see their friends because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope it brings some normalcy to their lives and some cheer during the holiday season,\u201d VanHerck said. \u201cSo as much as we can bring good tidings, enjoyment to the family and all the children \u2014 it\u2019ll be a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get live updates on Santa\u2019s location, families can call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) and visit noradsanta.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORAD will track Santa, keep phone lines open<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49693"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}