NORAD Santa Tracker Starts Its Countdown
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, this year's NORAD Santa Tracker program includes a website with holiday-themed games, movies and music.
The official Santa Tracker from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has begun its countdown, with Microsoft and Bing listed among its many corporate contributors.
According to the announcement, a search for @NORADSanta will return results for the NORAD Santa Tracker website, which includes the countdown calculator and a map of Santa’s North Pole Village, along with holiday-themed games, movies, music, library and gift shop.
Available in eight different languages — English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese — the NORAD Santa Tracker website can be accessed on desktop and via the Windows, Apple and Google Play stores.
[blockquote cite = “NORAD News Release”]Any time on Dec. 24, Windows Phone users can ask Cortana for Santa’s location, and OnStar subscribers can press the OnStar button in their vehicles to locate Santa.[/blockquote]
This is the 60th year NORAD has tracked Santa. The program originally started when a call to the wrong number resulted in the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operation hotline checking their radar systems for signs of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.
NORAD isn’t the only team tracking Santa; as usual, Google is also on the case with the launch of its Santa Tracker and Santa Village today.
Postscript: A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the NORAD Santa Tracker website is powered by Bing. Also, if you ask Cortana “Where is Santa,” she will respond and help track him.
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