It’s a big question on a lot of kids’ minds today, so I figured I’d just call and ask.
When will Santa be in Seattle?
“I can’t tell you for sure when he’s going to be in Seattle, but normally he shows up between 9 and midnight on the West Coast,” said a woman at the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “You’ll have to make sure you’re asleep by then, otherwise he might go right by your house!”
The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking jolly old St. Nick as well as its typical cadre of airplanes and spaceships every Christmas Eve since 1955, taking thousands of calls from anxious children all over the world.
This year, NORAD Tracks Santa has boosted its social and mobile presence with a real-time map, continuous and widely shared posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, new iPhone and Android apps and killer placement just below the search bar on Google’s decked out home page.
The NORAD Santa trackers are having one of their busiest years yet, with more than 4,000 calls coming in every hour, according to the Associated Press. New tweets are coming out every minute and “likes” on NORAD’s Santa tracking Facebook page have already exceeded 875,000. Last year, Facebook likes peaked at 716,000.
Where is Santa now? He was in the Seychelles at 11:55 a.m. — still a long way from the Emerald City. A couple hours ago, he sleigh was spotted circling the tallest peak in the world, Mt. Everest. NORAD even got video.
“It’s a good thing the reindeer had eaten so many vegetables throughout the year to ensure they were strong enough to endure this journey,” says the narrator.
So remember, kids: Be nice, eat those vegetables, and go to bed by 9.
But if you do spot Santa’s sleigh outside your bedroom window, you’ll let us know, won’t you?
Happy holidays, all.
