Santa Tracker 2020: When St. Nick Arrives In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST-LAKE BLUFF, IL — It’s been a tough year, and while few traditions this holiday season will go on untouched by the coronavirus pandemic, here’s one we can still count on — seeing whether Santa Claus is en route to Lake Forest and Lake Bluff with a sleigh full of Christmas gifts.

It’s a tried-and-true way to bring an extra spark of joy to kids this holiday season. It’s also a good incentive to get the kiddos tucked in by convincing them that Rudolph’s red nose is trained on your house and Santa is, in fact, on his way.

One way to track Santa is through the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which keeps count of the number of gifts children who went to bed on time have received.

The U.S. military command charged with protecting the nation’s airspace also tracks Santa’s trajectory. In fact, NORAD radar picked up St. Nick’s sleigh as it departed the North Pole around 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday.

As of noon Central Time on Christmas Eve, the tracker spotted St. Nick over Khorramabad, Iran.

NORAD is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the launch of the tracking program, which started due to a typo in a newspaper, according to the command.

Tracking Santa has been a tradition since 1955 when a local newspaper advertisement informed children they could call Santa directly – only the contact number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the crew commander on duty, U.S. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center, the predecessor to NORAD. Col. Shoup was quick to realize a mistake had been made, and assured the child he was Santa. Shoup then assigned a duty officer to continue answering calls. Thus, a holiday tradition was born, which NORAD has carried on since it was created in 1958. Each year since, NORAD has reported Santa's location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families around the world.

Kids can also keep their eye on Santa's path using the Google Santa Tracker.

Another way to keep little ones amused is to compare the differences between the two trackers.

You can find them below:

NORAD Tracks Santa

Google Santa Tracker