NORAD tracks Santa Claus as part of a Christmas tradition

(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Santa Claus is on the move and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has a way for people track Jolly Old St. Nick.

NORAD runs the NORAD Tracks Santa Service, which allows people to follow his Christmas journey through NORADSanta.org, social media channels and mobile app.

For more than 65 years, each year around this time, NORAD's website receives several million visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

NORAD says volunteers typically answer more than 130,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children across the globe.

This tradition is routed in a mistake back in 1955.

It all started with an ad in a newspaper in Colorado Springs, that's where NORAD HQ is based.

The ad invited children to call Santa, but erroneously listed the phone number for the Continental Air Defense Command (CACD), NORAD's predecessor.

Luckily, the staff there played along and a tradition was born.