{"id":368012,"date":"2025-12-25T12:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368012\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T12:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:51:07","slug":"heres-how-norad-tracks-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/368012\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s how NORAD tracks Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brig. Gen. Thaddeus Fineran shares how the North American Aerospace Defense Command is able to track Santa\u2019s journey across the world. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A cherished annual tradition is underway, helping Santa Claus make a safe journey across North America. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.norad.mil\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.norad.mil\/\" target=\"_blank\">North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)<\/a> is at the ready to help track and escort the jolly man in the red suit on the long journey across the continent to deliver gifts to all those on his nice list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Brig. Gen. Thaddeus Fineran, U.S. Northern Command\u2019s deputy director of operations, told CP24 that the program is able to track Santa through a binational partnership between Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/northern-ontario\/article\/norad-tracks-santa-in-treasured-holiday-tradition\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NORAD tracks Santa in treasured Holiday tradition<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Speaking from NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Fineran explained that a series of factors help contribute to successfully tracking Saint Nick\u2019s big journey &#8211; a series of overhead satellite systems that can detect infrared signature, ground-based radar systems and the partnership of the fighter aircraft between Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s really a combined and all domain effort to track Santa this one special day of the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The program has been tracking Santa for the past 70 years and started out as an accident, Fineran added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">NORAD\u2019s call centre, which protects the North American continent from airspace or maritime incursions, got a call on Christmas Eve from a young child who wanted to know of Santa\u2019s whereabouts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s gone fantastic ever since,\u201d Fineran said. \u201cWe\u2019re able to use satellite systems, keep a tab on him and\u2026 clear him into the airspace for Canada, the U.S. and make sure that he has a safe and effective journey across North America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">While he admits it\u2019s challenging to keep up with Santa because he moves so quickly, at the time of broadcast, he was spotted just outside of Kaiserslautern, Germany. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As for what time Santa is expected to arrive in Canadian airspace, Fineran said some time after 11 p.m. or so, which makes him ahead of schedule. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt could be quick, the weather has been pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s been making pretty good time tonight. I would err on the side of going to bed early for those parents out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brig. Gen. Thaddeus Fineran shares how the North American Aerospace Defense Command is able to track Santa\u2019s journey&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-368012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}