Major Jamie Humphreys is among those who will be dealing with the incoming barrage. “Nearly all the kids want to know when he’s going to be delivering their presents,” he said. “We tell them that we can’t give a firm time, but they do have to be asleep. When we say that, we can often hear the parents on the line adding ‘yes’ or ‘did you hear that?’ in a relieved tone.”
“For those who ask his age, we tell them that Norad intelligence indicates that Santa is at least 16 centuries old. And if they are sounding sceptical, I tell them to believe in their dreams.”
Nothing can prepare the Santa tracking team for some questions, however – like the boy who called the hotline last year, 10 days after the Sandy Hook school massacre.
“I’m from Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooting was,” he said. “Is it possible that Santa can bring extra presents so I can deliver them to the families that lost kids?”
Sara Berghoff, the volunteer who took the call, was briefly taken off guard, not least as she was just 13. “If I can get ahold of him, I’ll try to get the message to him,” she said, answering on her feet.
The programme began by accident when Colorado children flooded the hotline of Norad’s predecessor with calls after a local newspaper mistakenly printed its number in a Christmas advertisement in 1955.
It is of course intended as feel-good festive fun, not to mention some good public relations for the US and Canadian militaries in what has become the defence department’s biggest public outreach operation.
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