One of the largest United States and Canadian military outreach programs is asking hundreds of Coloradans to help complete their mission by volunteering for a few hours.

The NORAD Santa Tracker requires 1,000 volunteers of mostly military personnel to accept calls from across the globe on Dec. 24 as children await for Christmas Day, NORAD Public Affairs Officer Alex Werden told The Gazette.

A few hundred of those volunteer roles will be available for sign up to the public at 8 a.m. on Monday at nts2025.as.me. Those who sign up must have a real ID or another form of ID approved by the Department of Homeland Security to enter Peterson Space Force Base for the program.

Two-hour time slots for volunteers are available to begin on the hour from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Dec. 24.

In 2024, over 380,000 calls from children were accepted by volunteers and this year a web-based calling system will also be available for children without access to a phone, according to Werden.

The tradition began in 1955 after a child misdialed a phone number listed in an ad to call Santa in what was then known as the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph and accidentally reached an unlisted air defense command number.

Now, NORAD tracks the heat signature of Rudolph’s nose along with Santa’s sleigh while American and Canadian fighter jets wave their wings at him, Werden said.