In the last century, Santa Claus … or Santa Claus, has become the main symbol of Christmas in the Western world.
And it has served for everything: advertising campaigns, decorations, athletic races. Even a town has declared itself the home of Santa Claus and it is basically Christmas all year round.
In many countries children look for him in shopping malls to ask for a photo, they write letters to ask them bring gifts.
And on Christmas Eve there are even those who —not only minors, but also adults— follow through the internet his tour through the houses of the five continents while delivering them.
It is a tradition that has its origin ago 60 years, in the middle of the Cold War, for a wrong call to a US military command.
“That story made the Aerospace Defense Command (Norad, for its acronym in English) decided to use his radar system to follow the trail of Santa Claus during his intense journey on Christmas Eve, “Lieutenant Sable L. Brown, Norad spokeswoman, explains to BBC Mundo.
” Currently there is a team of 500 volunteers who every year they receive calls from thousands of children who ask us where Santa Claus is and if they can communicate with him ”, adds Brown.
But in reality, everything started with a newspaper ad.
Cold War and Santa Claus
It was ending November 4679 and the world feared the possibility that the confrontation between the United States and the Union The Soviet Union would lead to a nuclear conflict that would devastate the planet.
The governments of the United States and Canada had installed a radar system in order to detect a possible nuclear attack by the USSR through the North Pole.
One of the bases of that system was located in the city of Cincinnati , in the state of Ohio. During the night of 30 of November of that year, Colonel Harry W. Shoup answered the following call:
– Hello?
– Am I talking to Santa Claus?
It was a child who asked. Colonel Shoup froze.
That phone was supposed to be only for communications strictly related to military affairs, like , for example, an imminent nuclear attack on the country.
“The colonel understood the situation, but he wanted to know how the boy had gotten that phone number. And it turned out it had to do with an ad that had been in the newspaper, ”Brown explained.
The point is that a local store, famous among other things for its advertising campaigns had posted an ad that included a phone number that children could call to speak with Santa Claus .
But a minor made a mistake when marking it – not once, but twice, it counts the journalist Matt Novak in the specialized medium Gizmodo -. One of those calls was the one the colonel answered.
Shoup gently explained to the boy that he was not Santa Claus and that he had not called to the North Pole, and as he did so he realized that he was facing an opportunity.
“After the experience, Shoup gave the idea to the public relations team of the military command that in addition to protecting to the United States from a nuclear attack thanks to their radars, they could also say that they were doing the same with the adorable Santa Claus ”, explains Novak.
What they did was, the following year, publish a press release in which they reported that they were going to track the passage of Santa Claus through the US that December to protect him from possible attacks by those “who did not believe at Christmas. ”
Thus was born the Santa Tracker or Santa tracker.
How it works
In 1955 two were missing years for the Soviets to launch Sputnik into space and decades for satellites to be used with space geolocation technology, so the tracking process was simulated with radars installed to detect interoceanic missiles.
“At first we reported by radio and press how Santa’s passage through the US had been, but later we opened a call center and little by little it grew in popularity ”, explains Brown.
Experts agree that the Santa Tracker became one of the best strategies of marketing in the history of the US military
Especially after the advent of satellites, GPS and the internet, which is basically how it works now.
During Christmas Eve part of the defense system US nsa follows the path of two planes that “watch over” the passage of the generous old man dressed in red across the globe.
In fact, systems such as Amazon’s Alexa use Norad’s Santa tracker to provide information in their database.
“In addition to following Santa Claus’s step , with the number of gifts that is being delivered minute by minute, through the portal, we also answer children’s calls and answer their emails ”, informs the captain.
Children usually ask for the location of Santa Claus, but they also usually want to contact him directly or ask if they can ask for one more gift .
“Before the pandemic we worked with 1. 500 volunteers who told the children that the Norad communicates with Santa’s sleigh through an infrared light that hits the nose of Rudolph the reindeer (to whom a famous Christmas song is dedicated) ”, explains Brown.
And he reflects on how, working during the pandemic, made him value this service even more.
“I realized that the illusion that not only many children but also adults think about The arrival of Santa Claus is one of the few beautiful things that happened to them during these difficult months. So that has been very satisfactory. ”
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