It began 70 years ago when a five-year-old called a top-secret emergency line reserved for the U.S. president and four-star generals and asked, “Hello, is this Santa?”
It was December 1955 — the height of the Cold War. The phone that rang was big and red, only to be used during an international emergency.
That wrong number — and many others that followed because of a simple typo in a newspaper ad — ended up launching a mission like none other for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD: to develop a tracking system allowing families to follow Santa’s journey around the world.
Since then, the Santa Tracker has become a source of joy for millions of children.
So, are they trying to make me believe that the phone that was big and red wasn’t Santa’s?
I don’t get it. The kid called the wrong number - and that’s why that tracking thing exists. Huh?
What exactly are they “tracking” anyway?
Personal gripe: Looking at the actual tracker page noradsanta.org, I thought it was a funny idea to translate this very USian thing into other languages without, apparently, accounting for local traditions. It says, for example, that in most countries Santa Claus only comes when children sleep, between 9pm and midnight on 24th Dec. That’s not true for German traditions: we get our presents in the evening on Christmas Eve. He also doesn’t come down any chimneys. (In some places there isn’t even a “Santa Claus” who brings the presents but a kind of angel child figure vaguely associated with Jesus.)
Yes, it says “most countries” but the cynic in me can only see this as a kind of cultural imperialism where the US/Anglosphere tradition is given priority over any local one. I don’t even celebrate and I’m still annoyed…
(The translation is wonky in places too (“Jetzt kannst du mit dem Verfolgen des Weihnachtsmannes beginnen”), even ignoring the content not being localised, but oh well.)
What exactly are they “tracking” anyway?
Santa.
Jesus Christ read the article.
Yes, it says “most countries” but the cynic in me can only see this as a kind of cultural imperialism where the US/Anglosphere tradition is given priority over any local one. I don’t even celebrate and I’m still annoyed…
You’re upset because a PR site from an organization run by a branch of the US military is US centric? Get a grip dude. There are plenty of reasons to hate the US, but this really isn’t one of them.
I’m talking specifically about the translation. Are you saying the German and other versions are meant for a US audience?
There are ~50k US troops stationed in Germany and ~800k German speakers in the US based a quick search. Maybe it’s for them.
What I’m saying is that if you want a version tailored to your local customs you should talk to whoever runs your air defense system instead of getting mad that NORAD isn’t catering to you.
Both the US troops in Germany and the German speakers in the US speak English, they don’t need a translation. I don’t want a version tailored to me, I’m questioning why this one exists if they wouldn’t put thd effort in to tailor it to anyone.
Es geht hier um eine Webseite, die niemandem weh tut und wo es kein problem ist wenn es nicht zu 1000% richtig ist (ja ich weiß, prozente gehen nicht über 100%, lol.). Sowas ist ziemlich peinlich deutsch mein dude.
Stop trying to make “USian” a thing. It never will be because it is clunky and stupid.
USian
That’s just a sparkling Murican.
It was started as a sort of feel-good thing. Like they’re not actually tracking anything, they’re just saying they are for the kids and for fun.
If you haven’t noticed, culture radiates from the US, and all our traditions were made up recently
This wasn’t even a thing made to be shared. This is a stupid little toy website made for children
If you value your culture, make art about it.
Don’t blame our art for not including your culture, are you asking to have your culture assimilated???
Because that’s where that road leads. If American culture gains a deep understanding of German culture, that just means the empty corpo-slop will overtake the things you find special
I don’t blame you for not including my culture. I blame the translation that I feel confident in assuming is meant to be aimed at me for not including my culture.
And I’m saying you don’t actually want that. I’m pretty confident you want to keep your culture
The way you lose it is by slop worming it’s way in. The slop is inoffensive and tasteless
Just laugh at the bad localization, don’t try to fix it. It’s a bullet that missed you by a mile
Yes I want to keep my culture, that’s exactly my point. I don’t want bad translations pushing the US version. Bad enough that basically all the Christmas entertainment media we get is US centric. It would be so easy to include a sentence about local traditions in this translation but nobody put the effort in and I am left to wonder why the translation even exists in the first place.
You don’t understand… If the slop is inoffensive, it’ll pour in everywhere. Your culture will drown in it, one day you will wake up and realize ads have decided how you should properly interact with your family
It’s good that you don’t like it. That means you have something to protect, you still have something you value
Do you understand how much Americans hunger for culture? It’s not because we don’t have it, we have hundreds of cultures. It’s because it has all been mixed together into inoffensive slurry that leaves us feeling empty
The important and unimportant are all mixed up and drained away, and it’s not the important things that remain. It’s the things that profit someone
I don’t get it. The kid called the wrong number - and that’s why that tracking thing exists. Huh?
Somebody should write an article about it.
If you’re implying I should read the article: I have.
Heather Cox Richardson does, I think, a better job explaining it than this article: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-23-2025
That does make the process clearer, yes. Thank you.
Du Spaßbremse bist sicher super beliebt auf allen Parties.
Weil ich kein Bock hab, von Ami-Kultur überrannt zu werden? Meinetwegen.
Was treibst du dann außerhalb von feddit.de?
