Tracking Santa

NORAD started this tradition many years ago,of tracking Santa for kids,(big kids too) ,,,,,and in a World that has gone mad for political correctness,it's nice to see some tradtions of ours still going,..............that being said Merry Christmas to all of you readig this ,from Verdun Connections,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,   Les_F           HF&RV

Christmas Eve: A Special Mission for New York Air National Guardsmen

Rome-Based Unit Tracks Santa Again

• by New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs

ROME, NY (12/21/2009)(readMedia)-- Once again this Christmas Eve, members of the New York Air National Guard will play a key roll as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks the progress of Santa Claus around the world.

The air defense controllers at the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) here will employ radar to track Santa Claus over the eastern U.S. during his Christmas Eve journey across the nation. EADS personnel will work diligently through the night on Christmas Eve to maintain ongoing contact with Santa as he continues his travels across the states.

EADS is responsible for controlling the air defense system over the eastern United States.

"This is quite possibly our favorite "VIP" that we track," said the unit's Deputy Commander for Operations, Col. Wade Dewey. "The men and women of the Eastern Air Defense Sector take great pride in being on duty Christmas Eve, monitoring the skies as Santa journeys across the east coast."

To ensure Santa is safe and on schedule, the Air National Guard will ensure that their alert fighter aircraft, controlled by EADS, are prepared to fly and help Santa at a moment's notice, if needed. And in case of poor flying weather, EADS will provide jolly Saint Nick navigation and guidance.

Families can watch Santa's progress around the World Dec. 24 by signing onto the NORAD Tracks Santa Website at www.noradsanta.org.

The NORAD Tracks Santa program is primarily a volunteer program. Each year at EADS, Tech. Sgt. Deborah Martin, EADS Alpha Flight member, is one of thousands of volunteers to help support the program through volunteering.

"I have worked forever on Christmas Eve since I've been here and it has been a big adjustment for my family," she said. "It's funny though ... my kids are grown up, but my one niece and nephew really got excited to learn that the reason I can't celebrate Christmas Eve with the family anymore is that I'm helping Santa make his journey to all the children who are expecting him. I have people believing that there's a transponder in Rudolph's nose -that's why it's red!"

Although it is difficult for Sergeant Martin to be away from her family on Christmas Eve, she makes the best of it for her fellow crewmembers on Alpha flight.

"I get this warm fuzzy every year," she said. "I always stop off at this coffee shop on the way to work on Christmas Eve and they treat me to a coffee and doughnut."

The NORAD tracks Santa program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after an errant phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement that invited kids to call in and talk to Santa.

Instead he got the commander at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado. The Air Force officer who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested - the whereabouts of Santa Claus.

This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958.

The current Santa Tracking System employs the Google Earth program that provides an update of Santa's location at all times. It is frequently televised on local and national news networks as well as the Weather Channel cable network.

NORAD is a joint Canadian/American command that works year around to meet today's challenges in defending North America, and as a part of NORAD, EADS personnel, which also includes Canadian Forces members, are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide air defense over the east coast of the U.S.

To All Verdun Connection Members -Christmas Wish List for Santa

"Do You Believe" .......(stolen from the Olympic Slogan) hahahaha

Santa Claus

 

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or simply “Santa”, is the legendary and mythical figure who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24 or on his Feast Day, December 6 (Saint Nicholas Day). The legend may have part of its basis in hagiographical tales concerning the historical figure of gift giver Saint Nicholas.
While Saint Nicholas was originally portrayed wearing bishop’s robes, in modern times, Santa Claus is generally depicted as a plump, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, and films. In the United Kingdom and Europe, his depiction is often identical to the American Santa, but he is commonly called Father Christmas. One legend associated with Santa says that he lives in the far north, in a land of perpetual snow. The American version of Santa Claus says that he lives at his house in the North Pole, while Father Christmas is often said to reside in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland Province, Finland. Santa	Santa Claus on sleigh with reindeers
Claus lives with his wife Mrs. Claus, a countless number of magical elves, and eight or nine flying reindeer. Another legend of Santa says that he makes a list of children throughout the world, categorizing them according to their behavior (“naughty” or “nice”) and that he delivers presents, including toys, candy, and other gifts to all of the good boys and girls in the world, and sometimes coal to the naughty children, on the single night of Christmas Eve. He accomplishes this feat with the aid of the elves who make the toys in the workshop and the reindeer who pull his sleigh. There has long been opposition to teaching children to believe in Santa Claus. Some Christians say the Santa tradition detracts from the religious origins and purpose of Christmas. Other critics feel that Santa Claus is an elaborate lie, and that it is unethical for parents to teach their children to believe in his existence. Still others oppose Santa Claus as a symbol of the commercialization of the Christmas holiday, or as an intrusion upon their own national traditions.

Classic "Coca-Cola style" Santa Claus

Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the “Ghost of Christmas Present” in Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, a great genial man in a green coat lined with fur, who takes Scrooge through the bustling streets of London on the current Christmas morning, sprinkling the essence of Christmas onto the happy populace. The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name Saint Nicholas).

Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century. As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as “St. A Claus,” but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback each Eve of Saint Nicholas. This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas” by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus’s laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney. (Moore’s phrase “lays his finger aside of his nose” was drawn directly from Irving’s 1809 description.) The American image of Santa Claus was further elaborated by illustrator Thomas Nast, who depicted a rotund Santa for Christmas issues of Harper’s magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s. Nast added such details as Santa’s workshop at the North Pole and Santa’s list of the good and bad children of the world. In the first Nast illustration, Santa was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the Civil War. The cartoon, entitled “Santa Claus in Camp” appeared in Harper’s Weekly on January 3, 1863. A human-sized version of Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore’s poem, was depicted in a series of illustrations created by Haddom Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertisements introduced in 1931. In modern versions of the Santa Claus legend, only his toyshop workers are elves. An advertising writer named Robert May, invented Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, while working on a catalog for the Montgomery Ward Company in 1939. In North American poetry and illustrations, Santa Claus, in his white beard, red jacket and pompom-topped cap, would sally forth on the night before Christmas in his sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer, and climb down chimneys to leave his gifts in stockings children set out on the fireplace’s mantelpiece. Children naturally wanted to know where Santa Claus actually came from. Where did he live when he wasn’t delivering presents? Those questions gave rise to the legend that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole, where his Christmas-gift workshop was also located.

Is There A Santa Claus????

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus

The CJAD Announcer Paul Reid

Our Christmas Holiday Future

The Days Before Christmas 1958

This may help you recall a few memories of Christmas shopping in down town Montreal when you couldn’t find what you wanted on Wellington Street.

Merry Christmas Video

Check out the Video I created for Christmas,
if you do I'll sing you a song and dance a
little while riding my Harley.
Check out the Video Here