NORAD Tracks Santa Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Santa Radar

The Santa Tracker Marketplace has featured many organizations and websites devoted to tracking Santa and other Winter Holiday Wizards. [1]


According to Gerry Bowler, a history professor at the University of Manitoba and the author of Santa Claus: A Biography, of The World Encyclopedia of Christmas, and webinar host at the University of Manitoba on Christmas and Santa Claus, the NORAD Tracks Santa Program and the various Santa Tracking efforts are "one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa Claus story that have stuck. . . NORAD (and others) . . ., take(s) an essential element of the Santa Claus story - his travels on Christmas Eve – and looks at it through a technological lens. It brought Santa into the 20th century." And into the 21st century as well. [2]

Over the years there have been a number of websites created by various organizations to track Santa Claus. Some, such as the NORAD Tracks Santa Program and the Airservices Australia Tracks Santa Project, have endured. Others have fallen by the wayside into the "dustbin of history." One, the GLONASS Tracks Father Frost Project is rapidly capturing the underserved Russian language speaking "Santa Tracking" or "Winter Holiday Wizard" watching market segment.

Major Santa Tracker Players

The major Santa Tracker players are:

Logo-NTS-MY

NORAD Tracks Santa Program

  • NORAD Tracks Santa Program. As the first decade of the 21st century concludes, the NORAD Tracks Santa Program has become recognized as the "preeminent" and oldest (since December 24, 1955) Santa Tracking effort in the Santa Tracker marketplace. This is made possible by having an excellent service, that is well publicized world-wide, has and continues to use leading edge technology, has devoted fans, and very supportive partners and corporate sponsors.[3]


GLONASS Tracks Father Frost

GLONASS Tracks Father Frost Project


AirServices Australia Tracks Santa

Airservices Australia Tracks Santa Project

.


Other Current Santa Tracker Efforts

Other current (subject to change) Santa Tracker efforts present and past include:

MSNBC and Bing Maps Tracks Santa Claus

The MSNBC and Bing Maps Platform Tracks Santa Project

.


Santa Update Project

The Santa Update Project

.

  • Santa Update Project. On Christmas Eve from the year 1991 for the project and using the current website from 2002 to the present, the Santa Update Project hosts a Santa tracker at this webpage of http://www.santaupdate.com/. This Santa tracker provides periodic news feeds associated with Santa. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many


Santa-t Project

The Santa-t Project

.

  • Santa-t Project. A recent entrant to the Santa Tracking marketplace in 2010. Santa-t is a single page view that is similar to radar control station with an automatic time countdown at this webpage of http://www.santa-t.com/. [3]


Los Alamos Tracks Santa Claus

Los Alamos National Laboratory - Tracks Santa Project

.


Wroxall Weather Tracks Santa Claus

Wroxall Weather - Tracks Santa Project

.


Past Santa Tracker Efforts

Past Santa Tracker efforts include:

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport-2009

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Tracks Santa Project

.


Santa Retro Radar – Lehigh Valley

Santa Retro Radar – Lehigh Valley Project

.


NASA Tracks Santa Claus

NASA Tracks Santa Project

.


Santa Speaking

Santa Speaking Project

.

  • Santa Speaking Project. On Christmas Eve from the year 2004 to the 2008, the Santa Speaking Project hosted a Santa tracker at this webpage of http://www.santaspeaking.com/TrackSanta.aspx. This Santa tracker had all kinds of interesting features. One could view Santa‘s flight plan and track how much milk and how many cookies Santa has consumed. It told you how many houses he had visited and had a stamina radar. The greatest thing about this tracker was the "Closeness O'Meter" informing one how close Santa was to one’s house so that one could get to bed in time. The tracking videos themselves were from the NORAD Tracks Santa website from around 2002 with some editing. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many


Keyhole Santa Radar

Keyhole Santa Radar Project

.


Santa Tracker Apps

The new growth area in the Santa Tracker marketplace is in the smart mobile device arena such as tablet computers (for example iPads) and smartphones. For example, since the 2008 NORAD Tracks Santa season, iTunes applications (or apps) are available for download at the iTunes Store to help track Santa on Christmas Eve. [16] [17]

Santa Tracker Apps include:

1. Santa By Google Maps For Mobile.[16][18] After loading Google Maps for Mobile on a mobile device, the current location for Santa Claus is found by searching for "Santa", similar to using a query for "pizza" to find pizza places, or "San Antonio" to find that city on a map. [18]

2. Santa Tracker 2010 by Talus Media LLC for iPhone. [3]

3. Santa Tracker Live from Active9.com for Android mobile devices including smartphones. [3]

4. Santa Tracker from Value Apps for Android mobile devices including smartphones. [3]

5. Santa Tracker Christmas for Android mobile devices including smartphones. [3]

6. Santa Spotter from Ogilvy Group for Android mobile devices including smartphones. [3]

7. Santa Tracker for BlackBerry. [3]

8. Santa Tracker GPS 2.0 for iPad and second link.

9. In December 2011, the NORAD Tracks Santa program responds with free official mobile apps available in the Apple iTunes Store and in the Android Market. [19] NORAD Tracks Program apps at the iTunes Store. NORAD Tracks Program apps at the Android Market These free NORAD Tracks Santa iTunes and Android apps by Visionbox, Inc. enables one to watch the days countdown to Santa's flight, follow Santa's progress on December 24, play "Elf Toss" to help Santa's elves deliver presents, and learn about NORAD and its mission.


Broadband Type TV


AT&T U-verse TV Santa Tracker Demo. Link to full size video
ATT – Uverse – Santa Tracker

AT&T U-verse TV Santa Tracker Project

.

  • AT&T U-verse TV Santa Tracker App. From 2009 to the present, the convergence of telephony, TV, and the internet is an opportunity for AT&T to provide an integrated and interactive Santa tracker application offering during December and on Christmas Eve to include news from the Santa News Network (SNN) on AT&T U-verse channel 98. U-verse TV customers can interact with Santa and the North Pole in a number of ways, including: 1) Vote in the "Naughty or Nice" poll, 2) Play sing-a-longs and read-a-longs for popular holiday music and stories,3) Listen to holiday songs on "Rudolph Radio", 4) Play holiday games presented by Discovery.com/Toys, and 5) Watch real-time reports from the Santa News Network to see if Santa has left the North Pole and track his sleigh as he travels around the globe. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many


Impact of Santa Tracker Efforts

In addition to providing great holiday-themed enetrtainment during December for children and the young at heart, Santa Tracking and the underlying technologies used in Santa Tracking, such as radar, satellites, video cameras and jet fighter aircraft, which were orginally developed for the space program, inspire children around the world to think about how space technology and exploration play an increasingly important role in ones daily life. [20] Also, Santa Tracking teaches children and the young at heart important lessons on geography. [21] Finally, children can learn about tracking technology and science concepts that can inspire them to dream higher than the stars for their own future. Studies show that U.S. colleges and universities are only graduating about 9,000 computer science students a year, and Santa Tracking efforts are one way to inspire more young people to answer the call for careers in technology fields. [22] [23]


References

  1. "Where in the world is Santa Claus? Check in with NORAD's Santa Radar, FOX6 Milwaukee, December 24, 2010" (in en). FOX13 Now. http://www.fox13now.com/news/local/kstu-santa-tracker-story,0,7672624.story. Retrieved 2011-02-04. 
  2. "Secret Santa helper: First lady pitches in with NORAD by Dan Elliott, Associated Press, 24 Dec 2010" (in en). Associated Press and MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40803123/ns/us_news-life/. Retrieved 2010-12-25. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "Where Is Santa Claus? The 2010 Santa Tracker List, From NORAD To Google Earth, by Danny Sullivan, 24 Dec 2010" (in en). Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/where-is-santa-claus-2010-tracker-list-norad-google-earth-59697. Retrieved 2010-12-25. 
  4. "Tracking Santa and Father Frost: GPS or GLONASS – November 30, 2010" (in en). GNSS News. http://www.insidegnss.com/node/2381. Retrieved 2010-11-30. 
  5. "Yule track Santa's progress with Laboratory web site, by James E. Rickman, 23 Dec 1997" (in en). Los Alamos National Laboratory. http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1703. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  6. "Yule track Santa's progress with Laboratory web site, by Todd Hanson, 20 Dec 2000" (in en). Los Alamos National Laboratory. http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1117. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  7. "Santa's sleigh under surveillance, by James E. Rickman, 23 Dec 2002" (in en). Los Alamos National Laboratory. http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/nb.story/story_id/3346. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  8. "Is he here yet? Lab scientists keep tabs on Santa, by Public Affairs Office, 22 Dec 2004" (in en). Los Alamos National Laboratory. http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/nb.story/story_id/6012. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  9. "Space Satellites to Track Santa Claus, by Raam Wong, 24 Dec 2007" (in en). The Albuquerque Journal. http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/272004nm12-24-07.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  10. "Tracking Santa -- An Interview with the Head Researcher, by G. Simmons, 24 Dec 2010 – White House Blog" (in en). The White House. http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/24/tracking-santa-interview-with-head-researcher. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  11. "Tracking Santa -- An Interview with the Head Researcher, by G. Simmons, 24 Dec 2010 - Dept of Energy Blog" (in en). Dept of Energy. http://blog.energy.gov/blog/2010/12/23/tracking-santa-interview-head-researcher. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
  12. "Track Santa trip online, by James Emily Pearce, December 18, 2008" (in en). Isle of Wight County Press. http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/track-santa-trip-online-23726.aspx. Retrieved 2011-04-02. 
  13. "Here Comes Santa Claus! Watch it on the Web!, 24 Dec 2005" (in en). WRAL.com - Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville – North Carolina’s TV Station website. http://www.wral.com/business/blogpost/1103523/. Retrieved 2010-12-04. 
  14. "Tracking Santa: The Backstory, by Brian McClendon, 23 Dec 2008" (in en). Google. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/tracking-santa-backstory.html. Retrieved 2010-12-11. 
  15. "Official Google Earth Santa Tracker, 23 Dec 2005" (in en). Google. http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2005/12/official_google.html. Retrieved 2010-12-11. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 "8 Santa Trackers For Christmas Eve 2008, From NORAD Santa To Twitter, Dec 24, 2008, Danny Sullivan" (in en). Search Engine Land. http://searchengineland.com/8-santa-trackers-for-christmas-eve-2008-from-norad-santa-to-twitter-15949. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  17. "How NORAD hired Santa Claus as its PR manager, Dec 28, 2009 by Christian Zibreg" (in en). Geek.com. http://www.geek.com/articles/news/how-norad-hired-santa-clause-as-its-pr-manager-20091228/. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  18. 18.0 18.1 "Ho Ho Ho! Follow Santa's journey around the world on your phone - Dec 22, 2009" (in en). Google. http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/12/ho-ho-ho-follow-santas-journey-around.html. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  19. "NORAD is ready to track Santa’s flight, Dec 1, 2011, NORAD Public Affairs" (in en). NORAD. http://www.norad.mil/News/2011/120111.htmll. Retrieved 2011-12-01. 
  20. "NORAD Tracks Santa - Citation - Space Certification Program as a Corporate Patron Level Partner in the Certified Imagination Product Category, December 2007" (in en). Space Foundation. http://www.spaceconnection.org/certified-products/norad-tracks-santa. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  21. "BBC News - Hi-tech helps track Santa Claus, December 24, 2008" (in en). BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7792256.stm. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 
  22. "You’d Better Not Pout! Booz Allen Supports NORAD to Track Santa’s Approach This Year, December 1, 2010 by Booz Allen Hamilton" (in en). Booz Allen Hamilton. http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-releases/48399320/NORAD-tracks-santa. Retrieved 2010-12-01. 
  23. "It's Time for e-Sputnik, by Patrick Gorman, December 8, 2010" (in en). Government Executive. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1210/120810mm.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-10. 


External links

Advertisement