Santa Sets Records on Christmas Eve
December 27, 2011 2:00 PM 
While Santa raced across the globe on his traditional holiday run last Saturday night, more than a million children tracked his every move by phone, computer and even Twitter.
At Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, Santa-tracking volunteers took a record 102,000 telephone calls, shattering the previous mark of 80,000.
NORAD, which checks Santa’s progress using radar and secret satellites, recorded 999,471 “likes” on its Facebook page, compared with 716,000 a year ago.
NORAD’s Santa Twitter feed had the biggest surge in popularity, collecting 100,778 followers, almost double last year’s 53,000. Hundreds of tweets tracked Santa around the globe, from Australia, through Europe and finishing in Hawaii. Those involved with the tracking project said the records reflected the growing popularity of tracking Santa’s flight, as well as the explosion of social media.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa since 1955. That year, a newspaper invited kids to call Santa, but a typo in the number had kids talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD’s predecessor.
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