The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has a pretty important job: It protects all of North American from a surprise missile or an air attack. If anything suspicious makes an appearance in U.S. airspace, NORAD knows it.
 

And if that something suspicious just happens to be Santa’s sleigh, NORAD knows that too.
 

For five decades, NORAD has added an extra responsibility around the holiday season… tracking Santa.
 

Watching for the Big Guy is no small feat, though. The Gazette.com explains:

Last year, 10.6 million visitors from 212 countries and territories viewed NORAD's Santa tracking Web site - www.noradsanta.org - from Nov. 16 to Dec. 26. Ninety percent of those were on Christmas Eve.

It was the most viewed noncommercial Web site in the world on Christmas Eve, according to Google, which began sponsoring the site last year, said Air Force Reserve Maj. Stacia Reddish, who oversees NORAD's tracking of Santa.

You can find Santa whichever way is easiest for you:

In recent years, a Santa-tracker Web site was created and volunteers were recruited to answer the phone and e-mails.

Last year, 1,012 volunteers answered 94,743 phone calls and 10,326 e-mails, a fraction of the 140,000 e-mail messages received, Reddish said. Those were record numbers for the program, which is corporate funded.

Google translates the Web site into seven languages.

Globelink Foreign Language Center provides audio translations for the site. Booz Allen Hamilton designed the site and Verizon donates the toll-free phone number. In addition, Canada Post this year will provide responses to e-mails to Santa, Reddish said.

If you’re awake at 4 a.m. MST like you should be if you’re doing winter break right, tune in to watch Santa launch from the North Pole. Because even if you’re in college and jaded by the Christmas spirit, you have to be impressed.