For kids who want to make sure they are in bed before Santa Claus gets to their house on Christmas, there are two ways to do that.

As always, North American Air Defense Command, which has highly developed technology to track missiles, is preparing to track the flight of Kris Kringle across the continental United States and Canada.

The tradition started more than 50 years ago, when a newspaper ad accidentally gave the telephone number of the missile defense base instead of Santa. Rather than get upset, the commander of the base put out the word to track Santa and give the children who called updates.

Since both the Canadian and American governments give Santa permission to fly across the continent, NORAD provides airplane pilots to both give Santa a formal escort and provide additional cameras to track the jolly old elf.

And how exactly does NORAD track Santa’s flight? Satellites can detect the heat given off by objects and since Rudolph’s red nose glows like a light bulb, it gives off a signature for satellites to follow.

To track Santa, kids or parents can go to www.noradsanta.org for complete information.

NORAD will start tracking Santa at approximately 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve.