<P> Children can also receive a letter from Santa through a variety of private agencies and organizations, and on occasion public and private cooperative ventures . An example of a public and private cooperative venture is the opportunity for expatriate and local children and parents to receive postmarked mail and greeting cards from Santa during December in the Finnish Embassy in Beijing, People's Republic of China, Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, and the People's Republic of China Postal System's Beijing International Post Office . Parents can order a personalized "Santa letter" to be sent to their child, often with a North Pole postmark . The "Santa Letter" market generally relies on the internet as a medium for ordering such letters rather than retail stores . </P> <P> Over the years there have been a number of websites created by various organizations that have purported to track Santa Claus . Some, such as NORAD Tracks Santa, the Airservices Australia Tracks Santa Project, the Santa Update Project, and the MSNBC and Bing Maps Platform Tracks Santa Project have endured . Others, such as the Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport's Tracks Santa Project, the Santa Retro Radar--Lehigh Valley Project, and the NASA Tracks Santa Project, have fallen by the wayside . </P> <P> The origins of the NORAD Tracks Santa programme began in the United States in 1955, when a Sears Roebuck store in Colorado Springs, Colorado, gave children a number to call a "Santa hotline". The number was mistyped, resulting in children calling the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) on Christmas Eve instead . The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first call for Santa and responded by telling children that there were signs on the radar that Santa was indeed heading south from the North Pole . A tradition began which continued under the name NORAD Tracks Santa when in 1958 Canada and the United States jointly created the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). This tracking can now be done via the Internet and NORAD's website . </P> <P> In the past, many local television stations in the United States and Canada likewise claimed they "tracked Santa Claus" in their own metropolitan areas through the stations' meteorologists . In December 2000, the Weather Channel built upon these local efforts to provide a national Christmas Eve "Santa tracking" effort, called "SantaWatch" in cooperation with NASA, the International Space Station, and Silicon Valley - based new multimedia firm Dreamtime Holdings . In the 21st century, most local television stations in the United States and Canada rely upon outside established "Santa tracking" efforts, such as NORAD Tracks Santa . </P>

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