Santa Claus is coming to town. *
* Because of COVID-19, Mr. Kringle is unable to welcome children at Macy’s main store in New York City. At some mills, Mr. Kringle has to sit behind plexiglass to hear Christmas wishes. Mr. Kringle’s eggs carry disinfectant wipes. Mr. Kringle’s elves are now known as the “Santa’s Sanitary Squad.” Mr. Kringle is still talking to virologists about whether he can eat biscuits and milk while you are at home.
As with almost every other 2020 holiday, Christmas will never be the same. But there’s one habit we can still count on: Santa and his sleigh sail from the North Pole to your top to drop off your presents (while wearing a face mask).
We know this thanks to the North American Aerospace Protection Directive (NORAD). Headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Spring, Colorado, NORAD continuously monitors U.S. and Canadian aerospace through global satellite and radar systems. And the same people are good at watching Santa ‘s trip every Christmas Eve since 1955.
On December 24, NORAD will once again offer his beloved Santa Tracker, revealing the second location where Saint Nick and his team of tall reindeer as they roam the planet. Anyone can follow the trail through a dedicated NORAD website maintained by Microsoft engineers and hosted on Microsoft Azure.
The website also has games, holiday music, movies and more. It is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese. In addition, NORAD will use the new app, Santa-track and its social media channels to post updates throughout the evening.
And for curious children who need more than Santa’s ETA, NORAD on Thursday launched a new chatbot to answer topical questions, such as: “Is there a big drum of hand sanitizer on board? -sleigh? ”Answer:“ Santa takes all necessary precautions to keep everyone safe while delivering presents. ”NORAD activated the chatbot using Azure Bot Service.
“We’ve had a tough year with everyone looking for some good news,” said NORAD spokesman Preston Schlachter. “We understand that. We want to offer everyone a fun experience and maybe take their mind off what 2020 was like. “
The soul of Santa Tracker NORAD has long been a Christmas Eve call center, a festive center usually where about 1,500 volunteers wear a headset – a mix of civilians in holiday sweets and full service members camo.
Every Dec. 24 for years, the group has packed into several conference rooms at the Peterson Air Force Base, completing two-hour transitions over a 20-hour day. The work is fast. Each volunteer usually goes around one call a minute from a child somewhere in the world who is concerned about Santa’s approach. Some volunteers know that joy personally – as children, they once named the NORAD tracker line.
To maintain safe distances this year, NORAD will host fewer call center volunteers and mask wear will be mandatory, Schlachter says. People who can’t reach a live operator through 877-HI-NORAD (877-446-6723) will hear a recorded update about Santa’s whereabouts.
But for one long-time volunteer, Christmas won’t be the same if it’s not grounded, answering those urgent calls.
“I can’t miss it,” said Jim Jenista, a NORAD employee and former Royal Navy pilot and explosive who has spent nearly 20 Christmas Eve in the call center.
In fact, it has become a Jenista family habit – and an event for clothing right now.
Since the early 2000s, Jenista, his wife Karen and their six children have volunteered for the NORAD telephone bank. They arrive in Santa hats and handmade T-shirts, each decorated with unique reindeer. The children are now grown up and living far away. This year, only Jenista and Karen will be wearing their “Cupid” and “Vixen” shirts.
“It’s a great pleasure. That night includes the innocence, anticipation and joy of the holidays and the gift season, ”says Jenista. “It’s also the fastest two hours of your life.”
In many ways, Jenista represents NORAD’s two distinct genres: solemn security meets joyful surprise.
The organization was built during the Cold War to help protect North America from missile strikes. Today, however, many children know NORAD for their softest side: following and defending Santa’s long journey.
Jenista once flew A-6 Intruders and F-14 Tomcats, was on duty at NORAD on 9/11, and is currently assisting in coordinating U.S. military training exercises. In his spare time, however, he hosts a YouTube channel as “Grandpa Silly,” reading from children’s books in his lively style.
“Our motto at NORAD is, ‘We have the watch,'” Jenista says. “That means that as you go about your life, just know that we are here, ready to stop those who might want to harm us.
“NORAD Tracks Santa is a unique opportunity to share additional mission information with those in charge,” he said. “We talk about radars and intercepts and infrared and satellite – all the equipment and methods we have to protect the population. ”
In both worlds, Jenista says, NORAD is trying to help people sleep better at night.
And there’s one other similarity between the two efforts: The operation of the Santa Tracker is also a year-round mission.
“It’s not something that just starts and is implemented in December,” says Schlachter, who is in charge of NORAD preparation. “As soon as the program is over at Christmas, we talk about lessons learned and how we can make changes for next year.”
To maintain and restart its Santa Tracker, NORAD relies on a large register of volunteers, from tech companies like Microsoft to local businesses in Colorado Springs that provide coffee, water, sandwiches and snacks to operators. call centers.
“All of our partners have spoken to NORAD wanting to be part of the program, and they are all providing these services gratis,” says Schlachter. “We could not have this program without their generosity. ”
At Microsoft, more than 25 employees worked on the Santa Tracker website and chatbot during the year. That includes Azure and Bing engineers, as well as engineers from the FastTrack for Azure team, a technical enablement program that helps with the rapid design and deployment of cloud solutions.
In 2019, the Santa Tracker website attracted around 15 million page views.
Earlier this year, many of these same employees were busy helping Microsoft customers and partners move their companies to remote operations. Against that backdrop, Microsoft engineers continued to work with NORAD to update the website and build the chatbot, said Susan Sullivan, Microsoft ‘s senior program manager at Azure engineering.
“Perhaps the concern is: How will a program like this, not in March, April and May, get the appeal it needs when everyone is fully drawn? ”Sullivan says.
“But individuals saw the Santa Tracker program and enjoyed taking a deep breath of something new. It was a great relief from all the fears that were going on, ”she said.
Sullivan will lead Microsoft’s Santa Tracker efforts. That includes holding weekly meetings on Microsoft Teams with Schlachter and others at NORAD. In the midst of those months of planning and planning, news of the pandemic added further urgency to the team delivering a website that was both memorable and fully reliable, Sullivan says.
It was as if they were protecting a precious Christmas piece for children all over the world.
“There is an even bigger spirit behind the work this year,” Sullivan says. “I think kids are getting more involved online, more interested in the inspirational side of Christmas, and families are taking the time to make it special.
“Everything feels more important this year,” she said. “It feels like there will be more opportunity for happiness. ”