Building Holiday Magic: Twilio Powers Real-Time Calls for ‘NORAD Tracks Santa’

About Twilio + NORAD

For over 70 years, the NORAD Tracks Santa program has been a beloved holiday tradition, connecting children around the world with volunteers who help track Santa's journey on Christmas Eve. This December, Twilio is proud to support this magical mission for the first time, bringing our WebRTC technology to help deliver holiday joy.

From Santa's Workshop to Yours

This holiday season, we're channeling our inner elves to help NORAD scale their operation. With Twilio's Programmable Voice JavaScript SDK, visitors to the NORAD Tracks Santa website can now connect directly with volunteers through their browsers—no phone required—and learn where Santa is in the world. 

At Twilio, the builder spirit is core to who we are. We create communications tools that help developers bring ambitious ideas to life. So when we had the opportunity to support NORAD Tracks Santa, it felt like a natural fit. After all, Santa is the original builder: spending the year crafting toys and bringing joy to children around the globe.

By enabling browser-based calling, we're expanding who can reach NORAD on Christmas Eve. And that’s an already impressive reach: last year, nearly 380,000 calls were made to NORAD’s 1,000 volunteers in the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center. Previously, kids needed access to a phone and had to dial a toll-free number, which may have  created geographic or technical barriers for many families around the world. Now, anyone with an internet connection can click a button on the NORAD Tracks Santa website and connect instantly with a volunteer between 4 a.m. and midnight MST on December 24th.

This means more kids in more countries can experience the wonder of talking to a real person about Santa's location. We're not just handling calls differently; we're expanding access to this cherished tradition. While each channel has its own unique purpose, there is something special about voice for the holiday season. There's something irreplaceable about hearing a real human voice on the other end of the line. When a volunteer warmly answers a child's excited questions in real-time, it transforms information into a memory. 

The Magic of Connection at Scale

Behind the scenes, Twilio's WebRTC technology seamlessly routes these browser-based calls into NORAD's existing contact center infrastructure, helping ensure that every child's awe is met with a real human voice.

The diagram below shows how a child who clicks "Talk to NORAD Tracks Santa" on the website is routed through Twilio's platform and connected to the same pool of volunteers who answer traditional phone calls. We’re proud of it as an example of how modern communications technology can enhance—rather than replace—trusted systems.

From browser to volunteer in seconds, this architecture ensures that whether families call from a phone or click from a website halfway around the world, they receive the same warm, personal experience that has defined NORAD Tracks Santa in previous years.

We're grateful to Microsoft, whose partnership with NORAD opened the door for Twilio to join this year's effort. Alongside partners like Verizon and Amazon, who provide critical call flow handling, and HP who provides the devices used in the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center, we're proud to contribute our WebRTC capabilities to help even more families connect with Santa trackers on Christmas Eve.

Ready to track Santa yourself? Visit noradsanta.org starting December 1st and call NORAD on December 24th.

At Twilio, we empower builders to create the future of communications. This holiday season, we're honored to help NORAD continue building holiday memories, one call at a time—now accessible to even more families around the globe.