NORAD Tracks Santa

The emblem of NORAD Tracks Santa,.

NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas-themed entertainment program produced under the auspices of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Every year on Christmas Eve, "NORAD Tracks Santa" purports to follow Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world. The program starts on December 1 with a "Countdown Village" website.

The program is in the tradition of the September 1897 editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" in the New York Sun.

History and overview

1955 Sears ad with the misprinted telephone number that led to
 the NORAD Tracks Santa Program

According to NORAD's official web page on the NORAD Tracks Santa program, the service began on December 24, 1955. A Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper. The advertisement told children that they could telephone Santa Claus and included a number for them to call. However, the telephone number printed was incorrect and calls instead came through to Colorado Spring's Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. Colonel Shoup, who was on duty that night, told his staff to give all children that called in a "current location" for Santa Claus. A tradition began which continued when the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958.

NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible. Many volunteers are employees at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base. Each volunteer handles about forty telephone calls per hour, and the team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than two hundred countries and territories. Most of these contacts happen during the twenty-five hours from 2 a.m. on December 24 until 3 a.m. MST on December 25. Google Analytics has been in use since December 2007 to analyze traffic at the NORAD Tracks Santa website. As a result of this analysis information, the program can project and scale volunteer staffing, telephone equipment, and computer equipment needs for Christmas Eve.

By December 25, 2009, the NORAD Tracks Santa program had 27,440 twitter followers and the Facebook page had more than 410,700 fans.

Website and other media

This publicity picture for NORAD Tracks Santa shows two Northeastern Air Defense Sector
members with radarequipment in December 2008,.

The NORAD Tracks Santa program has always made use of a variety of media. From the 1950s to 1996, these were the telephone hotline, newspapers, radio, phonograph records and television. Many television newscasts in North America feature NORAD Tracks Santa as part of their weather updates on Christmas Eve.

From 1997 to the present, the program has had a highly publicized internet presence. As mobile media and social media have become popular and widespread as methods of direct communication, these newer media have also been embraced by the program.The layout of the NORAD Tracks Santa website and its webpages have changed from 1997 to the present due to changes in internet technologies, and changes in partners and sponsors for a particular year.

From mid-January until November 30, when one arrives at the NORAD Tracks Santa website, one is greeted with a message to come back on 1 December to "track Santa with NORAD". During December one finds a NORAD Tracks Santa website with all the features available.

On Christmas Eve, the NORAD Tracks Santa website videos page is generally updated each hour, when it is midnight in a different time zone. The "Santa Cam" videos show CGI images of Santa Claus flying over famous landmarks. Each video is accompanied by a voice-over, typically done by NORAD personnel, giving a few facts about the city or country depicted.[8] Celebrity voice-overs have also been used over the years. For the London "Santa Cam" video, English television personality and celebrity Jonathan Ross did the voice-over for 2005 to 2007 and the former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr narrated the same video in 2003 and 2004. In 2002, Aaron Carter provided the voice-over for three videos.

The locations and landmarks depicted in some of the "Santa Cam" videos have changed over the years. In 2009, twenty-nine "Santa Cam" videos were posted on the website. In previous years, twenty-four to twenty-six videos had been posted.

Sponsorship and publicity

This publicity picture shows two members of Canadian
 Forces with radar screens.

NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship, and is not financed by American and Canadian taxpayers.

U.S. military units that have provided publicity for the program include the Northeast Air Defense Sector of the New York Air National Guard and the U.S. Naval Reserve Navy Information Bureau (NIB) 1118 at Fort Carson, Colorado. Other U.S. federal agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have also publicized the service, as have the Canadian Forces.

(source:wikipedia)

Father Christmas

Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England.

Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a symbolic figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Père Noël), Spain (Papá Noel), Catalonia (Pare Noel), Brazil (Papai Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale), India (Christmas Father) and Romania (Moş Crăciun). In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas. Father Christmas is said to wear (these days) a bright red suit but in Victorian and Tudor times he wore a bright green suit. It was after World War Two that Father Christmas/Santa Claus had been redesigned to wear red an white the colours of the Coca Cola company as part of a publicity and business stunt, which proved so succesful that those are Santas colours today.

Father Christmas typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, but was neither a gift bringer nor particularly associated with children. The pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history, namely Saint Nicholas, (Sinterklaas), and folklore merged with the English, and later British Isles, character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans as Santa Claus. Like Santa Claus, Father Christmas has been identified with the old belief in Woden (Odin to the Norse).

In the English-speaking world, the character called "Father Christmas" influenced the development in the United States of Santa Claus, and in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, most people now consider them to be interchangeable. However, although "Father Christmas" and "Santa Claus" have for most practical purposes been merged, historically the characters have different origins and are not identical. Some authors such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, have insisted on the traditional form of Father Christmas in preference to Santa Claus.

In Europe, Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often said to reside in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland, Finland.

History

The earliest English examples of the personification of Christmas are apparently those in carols of the 15th century. The manuscript Bodelian Library MS Arch. Selden b. 26, which dates from circa 1458 AD,contains an anonymous Christmas carol (f. 8) which begins with the lyrics:

Goday, goday, my lord Sire Christëmas, goday!

Goday, Sire Christëmas, our king,

for ev'ry man, both old and ying,

is glad and blithe of your coming;

Goday!

Similarly, a carol attributed to Richard Smert (c. 1400–c. 1479) in British Additional MS 5665 (ff. 8v-9v), begins in dialog form:

Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell

Who is there that singeth so: Nowell, nowell, nowell?

I am here, Sire Christësmas.

Welcome, my lord, Sire Christëmas!

Welcome to us all, both more and less!

Come near, Nowell.

Both songs then proceed to proclaim the birth of Christ in the present tense and elaborate upon the story of the nativity as occasion for rejoicing. The specific depiction of Christmas as a merry old man begins in the early 17th century, in the context of resistance to Puritan criticism of observation of the Christmas feast. He is "old" because of the antiquity of the feast itself, which its defenders saw as a good old Christian custom that should be kept. Allegory was popular at the time, and so "old Christmas" was given a voice to protest his exclusion, along with the form of a rambunctious, jolly old man. The earliest such was that in Ben Jonson's creation in Christmas his Masque dating from December 1616, in which Christmas appears "attir'd in round Hose, long Stockings, a close Doublet, a high crownd Hat with a Broach, a long thin beard, a Truncheon, little Ruffes, white shoes, his Scarffes, and Garters tyed crosse", and announces "Why Gentlemen, doe you know what you doe? ha! would you ha'kept me out? Christmas, old Christmas?" Later, in a masque by Thomas Nabbes, The Springs Glorie produced in 1638, "Christmas" appears as "an old reverend gentleman in furred gown and cap".

Scrooge's third visitor (wearing green) in Dickens's A Christmas Carol,
 a Victorian representation of Father Christmas

The character continued to appear over the next 250 years, appearing as Sir Christmas, Lord Christmas, or Father Christmas, the last becoming the most common. A book dating from the time of the Commonwealth, The Vindication of CHRISTMAS or, His Twelve Yeares' Observations upon the Times (London, 1652), involved "Old Christmas" advocating a merry, alcoholic Christmas and casting aspersions on the charitable motives of the ruling Puritans.

Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long green fur-lined robe. A writer in "Time's Telescope" (1822) states that in Yorkshire at eight o'clock on Christmas Eve the bells greet "Old Father Christmas" with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, (or in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire), the yule candle is lighted, and; "High on the cheerful fire. Is blazing seen th' enormous Christmas brand." Father Christmas typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected as the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in the Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol (1843), a great genial man in a green coat lined with fur, who takes Ebenezer Scrooge through the bustling streets of London on Christmas morning, sprinkling the essence of Christmas onto the happy populace.

Since the Victorian era, Father Christmas has gradually merged with the pre-modern gift giver St Nicholas (Dutch Sinterklaas, hence Santa Claus) and associated folklore. Nowadays he is often called Santa Claus but also often referred to in Britain as Father Christmas: the two names are synonyms. In Europe, Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often said to reside in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland Province, Finland.

Traditionally, Father Christmas comes down the chimney to put presents under the Christmas tree or in children's rooms, in their stockings. Some families leave a glass of sherry or mulled wine, mince pies, biscuits, or chocolate and a carrot for his reindeer near the stocking(s) as a present for him. In modern homes without chimneys he uses alternative 21st century electronic devices to enter the home. In some homes children write Christmas lists (of wished-for presents) and send them up the chimney or post them.

Appearance

"Father Christmas" is often synonymous with Santa Claus,

Father Christmas often appears as a large man, often around 70 years old. He is dressed in a red or green snowsuit trimmed with white fur, a matching hat and dark boots. Often he carries a large brown sack filled with toys on his back (rarely, images of him have a beard but with no moustache).

In fiction

Father Christmas appears in many English-language works of fiction, including Robin Jones Gunn's Father Christmas Series (2007), Catherine Spencer's A Christmas to Remember (2007), Debbie Macomber's There's Something About Christmas (2005), Richard Paul Evans's TheGift (2007), C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe‎ (1950), Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas (1973) and the translation from French of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar and Father Christmas (originally Babar et le père Noël, 1941). J.R.R. Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letters are letters he wrote addressed to his children from Father Christmas.

The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia compares Tolkien's Father Christmas with L. Frank Baum's Santa Claus, as he appears in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus:

Santa Claus's friends raise an army to save him from monsters called Awgwas. Tolkien's goblins somewhat resemble the Awgwas, who also steal presents. But Baum's Santa does not fight like Tolkien's Father Christmas does.

C.S. Lewis, a children's author and Christian apologist, preferred the traditional Father Christmas because of his clear connection with the Christian holiday of Christmas.

Names in various countries

The term "Father Christmas" is used in translation in many countries and languages. "Father Christmas" (and in some cases "baby Jesus") is used in the following countries or languages:

Afghanistan – "Baba Chaghaloo" Albania – "Babadimri" Australia – Best known as Santa Claus. Father Christmas and Saint Nick are also used. Austria – "Weihnachtsmann" (not "Nikolaus", who is celebrated on 6 December) Note: The Christkind (Christ-child) is the traditional giftbringer in most parts of Austria.) Armenia – "Kaghand Papik" (Կաղանդ պապիկ) Azerbaijan – "Shakhta baba" (Şaxta baba) Bolivia – "Papa Noel" Bosnia and Herzegovina – "Deda Mraz"/Деда Мраз meaning "Grand Father Frost" (related with New Year's Eve) Brazil – "Papai Noel" Bulgaria – "Dyado Koleda" (Дядо Коледа), earlier "Dyado Mraz" (Дядо Мраз) Canada – "Santa Claus", "Père Noël" Chile – "Viejito Pascuero" China – "Shengdan laoren" (Traditional Chinese: 聖誕老人,Simplified Chinese: 圣诞老人, Cantonese: "Sing Dan Lo Yan", literally "The Old Man of Christmas") Costa Rica – "Colacho" (from "San Nicolás"). Note: The "Niño dios" ("Child God", meaning Jesus) is the traditional giftbringer. Croatia – "Djed Božićnjak", also "Djed Mraz" Czech Republic – "Ježíšek", which means "Infant-Jesus", is the traditional giftbringer in Czech Republic. Denmark – "Julemanden", meaning "The Yule Man" which is the Danish equivalent to Santa Claus. "Jul" is also often translated "Christmas". Ecuador – "Papa Noel" Egypt – "Baba Noël" Estonia – "Jõuluvana" Faroe Islands – "Jólamaður" Finland – Finnish: "Joulupukki", Swedish: "Julgubben" France and French Canada – "Père Noël", "Papa Noël" Germany – "Weihnachtsmann" (not "Nikolaus", who is celebrated on December 6). Note: The Christkind (Christ-child) is the traditional giftbringer in Southern Germany. Greece / Cyprus – Άγιος Βασίλης ("Άyos Vasílis") Hungary – "Mikulás" or "Télapó" ("Winter Father") India – "Christmas Father", "Santa Claus" Iran – "Baba Noel" Iraq – "Baba Noel" Iceland – "Jólasveinar" or "Yule Lads" Indonesia – "Sinterklas" Ireland – Santy and Santa (Claus) Italy – "Babbo Natale" (traditional giftbringers are "Gesù Bambino" ("Child Jesus") on Christmas and/or Befana on January 6) Japan – サンタクロース (Romaji: "Santakurōsu")

Kazakhstan - Колотун Бабай ('Father Frost') Korea – 산타 클로스 ("santa keulloseu") Latin – "Pater Natalis" or "Sanctus Nicholaus" Latvia – "Ziemassvētku vecītis" Lebanon – "Papa Noël" Lithuania – "Kalėdų Senelis" Macedonia – "Dedo Mraz" (Дедо Мраз) Malta – "Christmas Father", "Father Christmas", "San Niklaw/San Nikola" ("Saint Nicholas"), "Santa Klaws" ("Santa Claus") Mexico – "El Niñito Dios" ("Child God", meaning Jesus) Mongolia – "Ovliin ovgon" (Өвлийн өвгөн, which means "Grandfather Winter" and is Netherlands and Flanders – "Kerstman" ("Christmas man") Norway – "Julenissen" Pakistan – "Christmas Baba" Peru – "Papá Noel" Philippines – "Santa Klaus" Poland – "Święty Mikołaj" (in Wielkopolska region it is rather "Gwiazdor") Portugal – "Pai Natal" Romania – "Moş Crăciun" Russia – "Ded Moroz" (Дед Мороз, which means "Grandfather Frost" and is associated mostly with New Year's Eve) Sápmi – "Juovlastállu" Sardinia – "Babbu Nadale" Serbia – "Božić Bata" meaning Christmas Brother (Божић Бата; related with Christmas), "Deda Mraz" meaning Grandpa Frost(Деда Мраз; related with New Year's Eve) Sri Lanka – "Naththal Seeya" South Africa (Afrikaans) – "Vader Kersfees" or "Kersvader", "Father Christmas" or "Santa Claus" Spain and some of Spanish-speaking Latin America – "Papá Noel" ("Daddy or Father Christmas") or "San Nicolás" or "Santa Claus". The gift bringers are the Three Kings on 6 January Slovakia – "Ježiško" or "Dedo Mráz" Slovenia – "Božiček" Sweden – "Jultomten" Switzerland – "Samichlaus" Turkey – "Noel Baba" (Note: In Turkey Noel Baba is related with New Year's Eve instead of Christmas.) Turkmenistan – "Aýaz baba" Ukraine – "Did Moroz" (Дід Мороз, associated with New Year's Eve) and "Sviatyj Mykolai" (Святиӣ Миколаӣ (Santa Claus), associated with St. Nicholas Day) United Kingdom – "Father Christmas", "Santa (Claus)", "Daidaín na Nollaig" (Gaelic), "Siôn Corn" (Welsh) and "Tas Nadelik" (Cornish) United States – "Santa Claus" Uzbekistan – "Qor bobo" (Which means "Grandfather Snow", and is related with New Year's Eve instead of Christmas. Vietnam - "Ông Già Noel" (Which means "Old man (of) Christmas")

See also

• Christmas worldwide
• 
  

(source:wikipedia)

Santa Claus in Our House

Santa-claus

I was at a holiday party the other night when a friend sighed and declared, “Gotta go home and move the elf.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head a little and sigh to myself, admittedly with an air of righteousness, knowing we’d never say that in my home.

My husband didn’t understand the reference, so I explained to him what “Elf on a Shelf” was, to the best of my knowledge.

“So, basically they use scare tactics and bribery to get their kids to behave?” he paraphrased. And I nodded, again with a slight air of disbelief.

Another friend of mine has a direct line to Santa. She calls him periodically and loudly proclaims, “Hi Santa, it’s Gigi’s mom….” More rapid than eagles, little Gigi gets to work doing whatever Mommy asked her to do in the first place. I can’t help but wonder how Gigi will behave come December 26th.

Meanwhile, in our home, my husband and I work very hard to encourage our kids simply to be good for — to quote a popular Christmas song — goodness’ sake. Throughout the day, when my two-year-old son cries, I ask my four-year-old daughter if she can think of a way to make him feel better. The slightest hug or kiss from her is all my son needs to immediately pop back to happiness. And then I’ll quietly nudge my daughter and point out: “You did that! You got him to feel good again.” And we share a quick, tender smile before she goes back to being a robot or astronaut or baker.

My two-year-old was born into the loving and kind family environment my husband and I try to maintain. When he hears a kid cry, he automatically pouts in empathy. He is quick to dole out hugs or kisses to people he knows when he sees them in distress. And, of the few dozen words he uses, “I’m sorry” are two.

So the notion of encouraging my kids to be good in order to make Santa’s “nice” list really troubles me. Not only does it completely undermine my authority, but it’s pure extrinsic motivation.

My friend thinks it’s truly sad that I have robbed my children of the magic of the holiday.

I am not trying to pretend that my kids are saints, always behaving appropriately out of the sheer joy of being nice. Nor do I posit that children who believe in Santa are not otherwise good people. But how kids think of Santa Claus represents, for me, all that is not Christmas spirited: receiving instead of giving, greed instead of gratefulness, idle wanting instead of active contributing. And encouraging my children to write letters to him or make Christmas lists or be good because he’s watching encourages all the wrong things for me. I want whatever goodness does come out of my children, to be for the right reasons. I want them to be people who are simply good and kind and honest, as I try to be (well, most of the time…).

Granted, when I was a child, I believed in Santa, though I realized he was fictitious long before my parents told me. (I remember feeling a little embarrassed for my mother when she finally outed the guy.) But in my naïve days, there was a certain magic about Christmas Day and the night before believing the man would fly to my house and bring me presents because he’d been watching me and knew I’d been good. But had I? Had I been good?

I remember being a child sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall, nervously hoping he’d only heard good things (this, just moments after kicking my sister as we stood in the long line). So then when Santa confirmed I was on the nice list and presents were coming my way, I remember feeling — even as a young child — how I had gotten one over on the old man.

This year, now that my daughter is of an age where she could truly believe in Santa and be consumed by the magic and thrill of believing, I wasn’t willing to let him come down our chimney.

My friend with the ever-watching elf thinks I am cruel. She thinks it’s truly sad that I have robbed my children of the magic of the holiday. But I don’t see it. My kids still enjoy reading about Santa — as much as they enjoy reading about Harold and his purple crayon or The Cat in the Hat, magical characters who are not actually real but still capture a child’s imagination. My kids will still wake up on Christmas morning to see a sparkling tree with a modest bounty of presents underneath.

But more importantly, they will also give gifts to the less fortunate, say thank you for what gifts they receive and continue to be kind and do the right thing. It will be a magical day because we will have a house full of people plus gifts and music and food. The lights will still twinkle and the decorations still shine. No one needs to sit on a shelf or a keep a list for us. The day will be special simply because it’s Christmas — even if Santa skips our house.

(source:babble.com)