Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Jon Cherry / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP 17:22 p.m., December 24, 2023
Santa's tour kicked off on Sunday, with first stops in Australia, Japan and Taiwan. All this under the close surveillance of the US army, which for decades has been tracking the movements of the man in red every December 24.Australia, Japan, Taiwan... Santa's tour kicked off Sunday under the watchful eye of the U.S. military, which for decades has been tracking the movements of the man in red every Dec. 24. Departing from its base in the North Pole, his sled flew over Jakarta at 15:38 GMT, according to the U.S.-Canadian Military Command for Aviation Safety (Norad).
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Even faster than the U.S. Air Force's F-15s, "it slows down so we can escort it," says Norad, Santa Claus had already distributed more than a billion and a half gifts in Oceania and Asia.
The Amazing Origins of the Hunt for Santa Claus
This hunt - made possible according to Norad by sensors in the red nose of Rudolph, one of the nine reindeer pulling the sleigh - is an institution in the United States. It all started with a typo in 1955 in a Sears department store ad calling for a phone call in a local Colorado newspaper to make a phone call to Santa Claus.
Supposed to be the direct line of the famous bearded man, the number indicated was in fact that - at the height of the Cold War - of the Norad red telephone. Initially taken aback when he found himself on the line with a young boy asking him if he was "Santa Claus", the officer on duty that day, Colonel Harry Shoup, got into the game.
He instructed his men to spread information about Santa's whereabouts and even called a local radio station to report that he had seen a strange object in the sky.