One of the most asked questions this time of year is, “When is Santa Claus coming to town?”. Last year, more than 130,000 calls were made to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) call center asking for Santa’s whereabouts. NORAD has teamed up with Verizon for the 21st year to handle the operations.
In addition to connecting and supporting the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline and operations center, nearly 900 in-person and over 200 virtual volunteers, which include Verizon employees, military personnel, and other government and corporate partners, will come together to make the magic of NORAD Tracks Santa possible. Children can contact NORAD on Dec. 24 for answers to important questions such as:
- Where is Santa?
- When will Santa come to my house?
- Where is Mrs. Claus during the journey?
- What are Santa’s favorite cookies?
- How many elves are helping Santa?
- Which reindeer is helping to lead the journey this year?
Tools to help track St. Nick
Here is information on the hotline along with other methods children and their families are encouraged to track Santa:
Phone: The toll-free hotline – 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) – will be in operation for calls beginning at 6AM (Eastern Standard Time) on Dec. 24. Program the hotline number into your Verizon phone as “NORAD Call Center.” On Christmas Eve, have your child use the voice command to call the NORAD Call Center, and enjoy NORAD’s Santa Tracker as volunteers do their best to answer your child’s pressing questions.
Online: On Dec. 24, families can also visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website with links to several ‘SantaCams’ on NORAD Tracks Santa’s social media pages that capture Santa’s flight through various locations around the world. To experience the magic throughout the day, visit the website www.noradsanta.org on desktop or mobile for more fun activities. While Santa is in flight, children can see his whereabouts, play games, learn about holiday traditions around the world, and dive deeper into how NORAD tracks Santa.
For more information on Santa’s whereabouts, visit https://www.noradsanta.org/ or track via Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Be sure also to download the NORAD Tracks Santa mobile app (Apple or Google Play).
Other Verizon Holiday Activities
In addition to supporting NORAD Tracks Santa, Verizon also served as the presenting sponsor of the Dallas Holiday Parade. With an estimated attendance of more than 700,000, this is one of the biggest parades in the country. Verizon’s presence included over 150 employee volunteers who served a variety of roles, including bleacher hosts, balloon handlers, parade marshalls, bus wranglers, and dispersal helpers. Verizon’s professional services engineers deployed small cells throughout downtown Dallas and the parade route.
The Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team also joined in on the holiday festivities, offering communications support to the U.S. Forest Service as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was selected and placed on a specialized tractor-trailer for its journey to the U.S. Capitol lawn. This year’s tree is from the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.
