The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has teamed up with Microsoft to track the movements of Santa Claus as he makes his way around the world delivering gifts.

Google, who cooperated with NORAD in the past to track the jolly elf, lost out to Microsoft this year. The software giant has developed a slew of apps for phones and mobile devices to help kids keep an eye on Santa's progress.

Washington Post:

Tracking Santa has been a tradition since 1955, when a misprinted ad gave the phone number for what was then known as CONAD as the contact information for a Santa hotline. The director at the time, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, directed those on duty to give Santa's location on the radar to any child who called. The tradition has continued ever since.

This year, NORAD expects more than 1,500 volunteers to help with the effort, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, NORAD's director of public affairs. Volunteers take two-hour shifts, and the command relies on partnerships to provide the all-day service without using taxpayer money.

NORAD, of course, keeps up its normal operations during its Santa watch. It is able to house those volunteers in a separate, non-classified facility on its base in Colorado.

Microsoft is the headline partner for this year's effort, using its Azure cloud platform to help NORAD deal with the annual traffic spike it sees from the effort.

The command center has also rolled out a series of free game and tracking apps for Apple, Google Android and Microsoft phones, as well as Windows PCs, to make the effort more accessible for parents and kids. So far, Davis said, NORAD has seen more than 1.7 million app downloads across all devices.

"We're excited about it and excited about supporting the folks who are out there 24/7," said Tim Solms, Microsoft's general manager for its business with the Defense Department.

NORAD worked with other partners, such as Colorado firm iLink Systems, to design some of its apps.

In addition to tracking Santa, the NORAD site has a running total of gifts delivered, as well as a countdown clock telling where Santa is headed next.

The staff and contributors of American Thinker wish to extend its warmest wishes for a happy and safe holiday season to all our readers.