CONAD originally answered the 1955 Santa-tracking calls before NORAD existed.
CONAD was the Continental Air Defense Command, a United States military organization responsible for coordinating air-defense activities. In 1955, a child called its operations center after a newspaper advertisement accidentally printed the command center’s telephone number as a Santa hotline.
Colonel Harry Shoup, the senior officer on duty, decided that staff should respond in the spirit of the season. They told children where Santa was and continued receiving similar calls. This informal response became an annual public tradition.
CONAD was replaced by the North American Aerospace Defense Command in 1958. NORAD retained and expanded the Santa program, which is why the modern tradition carries the NORAD name rather than CONAD’s.