Newsflash: Where in the World Is…
…Santa Claus? I know many of you out there are skeptics of Santa Claus and might have a different point of view on NORAD’s tradition than I do. But really, there is something sort of cute about the whole thing and well, if we have a "holiday spirit" of Christmas, this does sort of fit the bill.
But slow down…what is NORAD’s tradition? The whole thing started in 1955 when a hopeful child called the number listed on a Sears, Roebuck, and Co. advertisement as being the direct telephone number to Santa. Unfortunately, the little boy reached the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)–an organization that monitors air and space around the U.S. and Canada. Not wanting to let the little boy’s spirits down, Col. Harry W. Shoup who had picked up the phone pretended to be Santa Claus. Little did he know a myriad of calls would follow, the officers in charge of taking the calls would get carried away, and 53 years later its a tradition to "follow Santa’s flight" throughout the world for boys and girls curious when they will get their presents.
Is it aiding in the commercialism of Santa? I’ll leave that up to you to answer. I think it’s cute. These people are giving children something besides physical presents to be happy about. And if you don’t believe me, you can read the article. No, it’s not penguins being knighted, but it isn’t about the world destroying itself, either. And really, a 53 year old tradition stemming from someone not wanting to disappoint an unknown boy…
It’s a good thing that NORAD doesn’t have any threats to look out for in the air on Christmas.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Newsflash, Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.