World News

We're watching you Santa

Well, it's nearly Christmas (or should that be Mithras?) and Santa has already started making his rounds and you can see how far he's got by logging on to the USA's NORAD website.

NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, have for some time, been tracking the movements of the fat man around the globe on Christmas Eve, making the information available on their website.

It all started when, in 1955, a Colorado Springs-based Sears store printed an advert in the local press encouraging children to call a special Santa hotline. Unfortunately due to a printing error the number that was published was that of the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defence force.

After a few bizarre calls with small children the Director instructed his staff to check radar data for any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole and let any children calling know the results.

That's the official line anyway. Who knows if Father Christmas has checked his elves working visas. We could be letting jolly old St. Nick down our chimneys with a bag full of incendiary devices. What better way for Al Queda to get inside our homes?

NORAD's own site says it "uses a variety of technological tools to watch for any man-made threat that might come from the skies" which, as far as we can tell, includes Chris Cringle.

Track Santa