Tracking Santa: How a wrong number, a 6-year-old girl and a fast-thinking Air Force officer created a beloved global holiday tradition

It was about noon on Christmas Eve in 1955 when the red phone – the “hot line” as it was sometimes called – lit up on Colonel Harry Shoup’s desk.

The 15-year Air Force veteran immediately tensed up. Shoup and his team sat in the heart of the nation’s Continental Air Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and this was the era of the cold war.

Shoup knew the shrill ring of the red phone could only portend bad news – perhaps even horrific news that atom bombs were dropping.

Ignoring an instinctive sense of dread, Shoup quickly picked up the phone.

“This is Colonel Shoup,” he answered matter-of-factly only to be taken aback by the voice on the other end of the phone.

“Is this Santa Claus?” a meek and tentative voice came through the phone line. It was easily identifiable as that of a little girl.

Shoup first believed the call was a prank and his instinct was to admonish the prankster. But first he decided to ask the girl her name. When the girl’s response was still tentative and shaky, Shoup decided the call was for real.

Playing along, Shoup told the little girl he was Santa and for the next minute he assured her he would be visiting her house that night.

How this little girl had gotten through on one of the most secure phone lines in the country was a question for later.

It turned out the call was neither a prank nor an anomaly. Soon more calls from more excited children began to come in on the same phone number.

Shoup and his staff came to find out that a Sears department store had started running advertisements in local newspapers encouraging children to call a special phone number and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

The only problem – the ads carried a misprinted phone number and calls meant for the special Santa line instead connected to the Operations Center at Peterson AFB.

As more and more calls from kids invaded the Continental Air Defense’s phone lines, Shoup assigned some of his staffers to take the calls and pretend to be Santa.

The news media got hold of this story and ran with it.

The next year, as Christmas 1956 approached, news outlets from across the globe incessantly asked if the Air Force was going to repeat the program. Shoup decided it would be a great public relations initiative for the Air Force to do it again.

An iconic Christmas tradition was born.

***
As the story of Colonel Shoup, the little girl, and the misprinted phone number has been told and re-told over the past six decades, elements of truth and legend have become more and more entwined.

In reality, Shoup took the little girl’s call on November 30, not Christmas Eve, and the phone was a regular telephone line, not a secure “hot line.”

But such details matter little in the overall.

What counts is that each year since Colonel Shoup answered that phone in 1955, the air forces of the U.S. and Canada have faithfully tracked Santa’s Christmas Eve flight. In so doing, they have created a tradition enjoyed by millions of families around the globe and generated a unique sense of good will that is as profound as it is widespread.

Today, the keepers of the tradition work and live in the Colorado Springs area.

Peterson Air Force Base is now called Peterson Space Force Base (SFB) and the Continental Air Defense Command has grown into NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command).

Norad involves both the American and Canadian Air Forces. They co-habitate Peterson SFB and protect the air space over both countries.

“The tradition of Santa Tracking is alive and thriving here,” said Major Jennie Derenzis of the Royal Canadian Air Force who works in Public Affairs at Peterson SFB. She has been stationed at Peterson for nine months.

“We have a website and social media sites as part of the Santa Tracking,” said Derenzis.

“On Christmas Eve morning, our Santa Tracker call center will go into operation at 6 a.m. EST with about a thousand volunteers answering calls during the day. They will answer kids’ questions and tell them where Santa Claus is at any given time.”

Last year the volunteers, who come from both air forces as well as the surrounding Colorado Springs community, handled a mind-boggling 430,000 calls.

“This program is only possible because of the great team of volunteers we have – and also thanks to a robust team of corporate sponsors,” said Derenzis.

These volunteers and sponsors fully absorb the cost of the Santa Tracker project.

***

Tiffani Phillips and Bob Sommers are two veteran Santa Tracking volunteers.

Phillips is an air force veteran, a wife, and mother of six children. She currently works as a civilian contractor at Peterson SFB.

She and her husband Erik, who works at the nearby Air Force Academy, have been answering children’s calls on the Santa Tracker phone line since 2015.

Sommers served in the U.S. Marine Corp and in the reserve from 1984-2009. He is a husband and father of two sons.

Both describe their experiences in the Santa Tracker program with equal fervor for the traditions it represents and for the joy it brings them.

“My first exposure to the Santa Tracker was calling in to the phone line when my kids were young,” said Phillips. “Then my husband and I started volunteering.

“When my oldest turned 15 (the minimum age to volunteer), she joined us while my younger ones were with their grandparents.”

Phillips’ children now range in age from nine to 24, making four of them old enough to participate in the program.

“We were worried that when our kids starting participating, that Christmas would lose some of its magic for them,” Phillips said. “If anything, their participation has reinforced it”

“It feels so good when you get a call at the center and the kids engage on the phone,” Sommers said.

“It is usually the kids who call, and they are on a speaker phone so the family can listen. “Sometimes the kids are hesitant at the start, and they will ask where Santa is. Because of the time I am on my shift, I will tell them he is in Kenya and will be going to Nairobi to bring toys to the kids there.”

***

The exuberance and passion of all the volunteers is off the charts – literally.

According to Phillips, when the signup sheet for volunteers is posted in November, it fills up in minutes.

But for Phillips and Somers, donating the time and doing the work is not enough. It also requires you believe – unquestioningly.

“Everyone takes this seriously,” said Phillips. “On Christmas Eve we ARE tracking Santa seriously.”

“They ask us to always be enthusiastic and optimistic while we are on our shifts,” Sommers laughed. “Believe me, that is not hard.”

Derenzis illustrates how serious the Santa Tracker team is, as she recites some of the information all of the volunteers can recite.

“Santa does not have to file a flight plan because he is Santa,” Derenzis said. “We coordinate with Santa’s Elf Launch Staff to confirm his launch time.

“Our intelligence shows he starts his flight at the International Date Line. Derenzis continued, “and travels to the west, visiting the South Pacific, then New Zealand, Australia and Japan. He then crosses Asia and into Africa, then Western Europe, across the Atlantic to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central and then South America.

“When the kids ask when they can expect Santa at their house, we tell them only Santa knows his route. NORAD cannot predict when he will be at your house. Our history shows he arrives between nine and midnight but only if children are asleep.”

“I am a mom of six,” said Phillips, “so when I am on the phone, I try to help the moms out there by telling their kids they need to go to sleep early if they want Santa Claus to come.”

“The highlight,” Derenzis reports, “is when we see Santa as he is heading back to the North Pole after his flight. The Canadian and American pilots tip their wings to Santa out of respect.”

***

For volunteers like Phillips and Sommers, the volunteer work is not intrusive on their holiday, rather it is ingrained in their family Christmas traditions.

“On Christmas Eve morning, we all go to a local restaurant for a big brunch,” Sommers said. “Then we head out to the base for our shift which is usually two o’clock to four o’clock in the afternoon.

“When we get to the base, we go over the guidelines and the information as we do every year.”

Somers described the call center.

“The room is usually used as a big conference room. There is a very long conference table and everyone sitting there is taking phone calls. Around the room are smaller tables at which four people can sit to take calls.

“There is a big screen on the wall so everyone can see the Santa Tracker visual. At two o’clock, I tap the shoulder of the person I am to relieve, and we switch spots. The great thing is we complete our shift at four o’clock so my family can go to church together that evening.”

Phillips’ family has a similar routine.

“We have a big family breakfast at home on Christmas Eve morning,” she says, then her family members head to the base for a noon to two o’clock afternoon shift. “We have a light lunch after the shift and still can get home to enjoy Christmas Eve dinner at home.”

Both Sommers and Phillips have had extended family members working at the call center.
“Three or four years ago, my dad joined us for Christmas, and he came with us to the call center,” Phillips recalled.

“His hearing was not great, so the staff put him in a separate room away from the noise of the call center.

“He took calls and had a great time. He still comes with us to the base, but his hearing is worse, so now he hangs out in the break room with other volunteers and has the time of his life.”

Sommers said his sister and other members of his extended family have participated over the years. “My mother volunteered for years, and she always said the best part was listening to the children’s questions.” Sommers said.

Each volunteer works a two-hour shift on the phone. There are about 100 volunteers working each shift. Many are fluent in the languages of the world.

The cacophony of phone calls is non-stop. Phillips and Sommers both estimate that volunteers handle 80-90 calls per shift.

“It goes so fast,” said Phillips. “You are talking and smiling the whole time. It is quite a workout.”

“I get lots of calls from Canada, the British Isles and Western Europe,” said Sommers. “It’s the fastest two-hours of my year.”

***

Most of the children who call ask where Santa is currently located and when he will visit their houses. A lot of children also ask if they can talk to Santa.

“We tell them he is so busy on Christmas Eve, even we can’t talk with him,” said Phillips.
But the volunteers need to be on their toes for some unexpected questions too.

“I have been asked to name Santa’s favorite cookie,” said Phillips. “I ask the caller what cookies they have for Santa and the ones they tell me they have are the ones I say are Santa’s favorite.”

“A question I get sometimes is if Rudolph is leading Santa’s sleigh, to which, of course, I answer yes,” said Sommers, “and I remind the kids to leave carrots for the reindeer. It’s their favorite food.”

“Some ask how Santa can visit every house around the world in one night,” Derenzis smiled. “We try and explain that Santa does not experience time the way we do. What seems like one night to us can be weeks or months for Santa.”

“Occasionally I get a call from a borderline believer who asks a lot of questions like they are testing you,” Sommers said. One asked me for characteristics of Santa’s sled, like its size and weight. We have that calculated. I gave him the answers.”

Not all of the calls are festive in nature and sometimes a question brings a volunteer back to the reality of the world.

“We got a call two years ago from a group of kids in the Ukraine asking if Santa could turn their power back on,” said Derenzis.

The volunteers heap praise on Peterson SFB’s Public Affairs (PA) staff.

“This is a year-round proposition for them” Phillips said. “They have months of prep work they must do and then set up the rooms and provide the food and drink and the information and do everything including fixing the phone lines when necessary.”

“They have to handle literally hundreds of news media as the holidays approach. If you think Santa works hard for Christmas, you should see the PA staff,” said Somers.

With Christmas only a week away, the exuberance in the volunteer’s voices is reminiscent of a kid rushing under the Christmas tree to open presents. They cannot tell you too many times they are looking forward to Christmas Eve.

“There’s nothing like spreading the Christmas spirit,” said Sommers. “That is what makes it worthwhile to me.”

“The call center is so full of energy and so festive, you can’t wait to be there,” said Phillips.

“This is a beloved tradition. My family gets something meaningful out of it every year.

When you participate you feel like you are involved in something bigger than yourself.”

***

Colonel Harry Shoup retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1968 following a distinguished 28-year career. He was nicknamed the “Santa Colonel” and proudly told the story of his phone call with the little girl every year until his death in 2009.

Shoup’s son Rick, in a 2014 interview, said that his father received a lot of letters from people all over the world thanking him for having a “sense of humor” and for starting the tradition.

“He kept those letters in his briefcase,” Rick Shoup said. “Dad was an important guy, but the Santa Tracker is the thing he is most known for and it’s the thing he was proudest of.”