By The Opinion
Dec 24, 2024, 18:51 PM EST
Santa Claus is officially on his way around the world and after checking his listthe big man is delivering faster than Amazon Prime to everyone who behaved well.
With Rudolph commanding the sleigh, Santa Claus has already begun handing out millions of gifts to children around the world who have been good this year, according to joint tracking by the US and Canadian militaries.
For 69 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) has followed in the footsteps of Santa Claus every Christmas Eve, who first visits New Zealand and Australia, where it gets dark earlier; and then continues through Asia, Africa and Europe to end in America.
So that the little ones in the house can follow Santa Claus in real time, Norad enabled another year the website http://www.noradsanta.org with a map where the affable old man and his reindeer can jump from country to country. country.
The page, which is available in nine languages – English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean – also indicates how many minutes are left until your next stop and contains a counter for gifts distributed.
Santa Claus had already delivered billions of gifts to the children of Australia, New Zealand and Japanwhere it gets dark earlier, and was crossing the skies of China.
Children can also call Norad, where 1,000 American and Canadian volunteers answer questions about Santa’s location and origins.
Norad and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (Conad), have continued their journey for almost 70 years.
In 1955, the Sears department store published an ad in a Colorado newspaper inviting children to call Santa Claus, but they mistakenly gave the phone number of the then commander in chief of the Conad, Colonel Harry Shoup.
That Christmas, Shoup received hundreds of calls from children and decided that it was necessary to create a volunteer center that would help the little ones learn more about Santa Claus.
On December 24, 2022, Norad received 73,000 calls to track Santa Claus.
At a press conference on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder joked about the recent drone sightings in New Jersey, which generated all kinds of speculation, and asked citizens not to be confused and to avoid calling the FBI if they detect Santa Claus’s sleigh.
“If you see red and green lights in the sky, it’s probably him. Please note that this is a licensed object in the sky and not a drone. So, double check,” he stated.
*With information from EFE.
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