Everyone was keeping their eye out for Rudolph's red nose on Saturday.
The Santa trackers at NORAD had a record-breaking Christmas Eve,
telling the Associated Press they answered a whopping 102,000 telephone
calls about Santa - shattering the previous record of 80,000 calls.
The tradition dates back to 1955 but got a boost from social media efforts this year, officials told the AP.
"The phones are ringing like crazy," said Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis.
Most of the volunteers were based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, but First Lady Michelle Obama chimed in from Hawaii to answer some inquiries about Santa's whereabouts.
"It is wonderful to be part of this holiday tradition. I love answering
calls from children who were anxious to learn where Santa was and when
he would arrive at their home," the first lady said in a statement.
"I passed on to each child the current location of Santa and reminded
them that he would come to their house only after they were in bed
sleeping,” she said.
Lewis told the AFP that kids didn't seem to recognize the First Lady's voice.
"They all just asked run-of-the-mill stuff. They wanted to know about Santa."
NORAD volunteers also answered children's questions via Twitter and Facebook.
By Christmas Day, the Facebook page had more than 999,000 likes - up from 700,000 last year.
On the page, families across the world expressed thanks to the
volunteers for keeping their kids informed about Santa's whereabouts all
day.
"Thank you NORAD for all that you do all year long and for the special
Santa tracking. My grandson along with myself had an exciting evening
tracking Santa," one user wrote.
"Merry Christmas to all of you and your families. May you truly be blessed."
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Source : http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/michelle-obama-helps-norad-break-santa-tracker-christmas-eve-record-article-1.996716?localLinksEnabled=false
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