US Air Force base takes calls from kids awaiting Santa

Keeping alive over six decades-old tradition of tracking Santa's movements, hundreds of volunteers at an Air Force base in US' Colorado, over phone are answering the questions from eager kids who want to know where Santa was on his Christmas Eve travels.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Tracks Santa got underway at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The public can access its official Santa Tracker to watch Santa Claus prepare for his voyage. Once Santa takes flight, the public can track his whereabouts and access NORAD's "Santa Cams" as he journeys around the world to bring joy to good boys and girls, CNN reported NORAD as saying in a statement.

This year, the program which is run by US and Canadian militaries, entered 62nd year, according to the reports.

NORAD paired up with Alexa to track Santa's whereabouts, this year. Taking the fun a notch higher, the public can ask Alexa "Where's Santa?" and Amazon's voice-activated computer service will answer.

The Santa Tracker program began in 1955 purely out of a mistake.

Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited children to call Santa but misprinted the phone number. The published phone number was actually for the commander in chief's operations hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), which was NORAD's predecessor.