NORAD Santa Tracker 2010

NORAD 2010 Santa Tracker service history

The 2010 Santa Tracker service is once again from the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Starting in 1955, the agency that would become NORAD started tracking the flight of Santa Claus. It all started when a Sears department store ad misprinted a phone number where kids could “talk to Santa” on Christmas Eve. Kids instead got sent to the Continental Air Defense office, who gave them the “current location” of Santa.
The 2010 NORAD Santa Tracker

The 2010 NORAD Santa Tracker is going to be a full multimedia activity. You can call the 2010 NORAD Santa tracker team to get Santa’s current location by dialing 1-877-446-6723. The Santa Tracker team also answers any e-mails sent to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com. The Twitter account, @noradsanta also tracks Santa’s location. You can also use Google Earth as a Santa Tracker. This year, using Google Maps Mobile, NORAD Santa Tracker can deliver Santa’s current location to directly to any cell phone. Just visit m.noradsanta.org or visit Google Maps Mobile and search for “Santa.” The Santa Tracker also offers services through Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and TroopTube.tv. NORAD will even track how many cookies Santa eats during his long night of travels.

St. Nicholas Day Celebrated Today!

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day , one of my favorite blogs to read is Freedom Eden , they portrayed the day with due course , read the entire post their , here’s an excerpt from F.E. :

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young.

St. Nicholas Day is being celebrated today in may countries around the world. The holiday has been popular for centuries in Christian countires, specifically Northern Europe.

The holiday is also a reminder that St. Nicolas is actually known at Jolly Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas was renowned for his great kindness and his generous aid to those in distress. Among the kind and miraculous acts attributed to him are saving three young girls from prostitution by secretly providing them with dowries, raising three murdered boys from the dead, and saving sailors caught in stormy seas. For these reasons, he is considered the patron saint of children, unmarried girls, and sailors, among others.

Traditional celebrations included gifts left in children's shoes, from which American Christmas stockings developed.

Good children receive treats -- candies, cookies, apples and nuts -- while naughty children receive lumps of coal. In Germany, children still put a shoe outside their bedroom doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, and hope to find candy, coins and maybe a small gift in them on Dec. 6. In the Netherlands, children put their shoes in front of their chimneys in hopes of finding chocolate or a small toy in their shoe when they wake. The Dutch say that Sint Nikolaas or Sinterklass and his helper Zwarte Piet or Black Pete would travel  by horse to homes. Children would leave out a pair of polished shoes filled with hay and carrots. If the children were good it was replaced with candy and gifts. If the children were not good, Black Pete would leave a piece of coal.

Dec. 6 is the generally recognized date of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. He lived in the fourth century and died in 342 A.D. He was the son of a wealthy family who became a monk in his teens and later a priest and Bishop.

Following the death of his parent's he used his inheritance to help those in need. His acts of kindness and mercy were legendary and he became known throughout Christendom as a saintly man.