Every Christmas Eve, millions of families around the world do the same thing.

They open a website.

They call a hotline.

They wait for updates from a military command center buried deep inside Cheyenne Mountain.

And they ask the same question:

Where is Santa?

What most people don’t realize is that the system tracking Santa Claus was originally built to detect Soviet nuclear bombers.

This episode of Stories From the Vault investigates the true origins of the NORAD Santa Tracker — from a Cold War emergency hotline, to early-warning radar nets aimed at the Arctic, to a tradition that now draws tens of thousands of volunteers every year.

Was it really just a typo in a 1955 Sears ad?

Or did the U.S. government accidentally — or intentionally — create the most successful and wholesome psychological operation in American history?

Using declassified records, historical reporting, and Cold War context, we examine how fear was transformed into reassurance… and how the same surveillance infrastructure designed for war became a bedtime story for children.

This isn’t an exposé meant to ruin Christmas.

It’s an investigation into how storytelling, trust, and institutions shape belief — and why this tradition still works nearly 70 years later.

🧭 Stories From the Vault explores declassified history, hidden systems, and the stories that quietly shape public consciousness.

👇 After watching, comment and tell us:

Do you think the Santa Tracker is just a harmless tradition… or America’s most successful PsyOp?