Improved technology helped make the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s 50th “Santa Tracker” season a success Dec. 24.

NORAD officials said that a worldwide network of radar and space satellites was used to track Santa, who began his journey at 5 a.m. MST Dec. 24. With the help of this technology and more than 360 “Santa helpers,” near real-time updates were available through phone calls, e-mail and on the Internet, allowing millions of children worldwide to keep track of Santa’s trip, officials said.

The Web site’s radar map had streaming audio and video updates translated from the tracking data. The updates were available in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese.

The Web site received 600 million visitors, and more than 50,000 e-mails were received, officials said. NORAD also received nearly 60,000 phone calls during the 24-hour period.

[ANN Note: We get a huge kick every year out of NORAD's outstanding efforts to restore a little of the magic to Christmas... and greatly appreciate their spirit.]

FMI: www.noradsanta.org