Cheyenne Mtn Alien Toy Workshop

NORAD & USNORTHCOM (N&NC) — NORAD Tracks Santa · Other · 2025

Worn by NORAD and U.S. Northern Command volunteers during the 70th NORAD Tracks Santa mission on Christmas Eve 2025, this unofficial morale patch imagines the Cheyenne Mountain tunnel as an extraterrestrial toy factory — a saucer beaming presents into the granite while a Santa-hatted alien throws a peace sign and asks, "Who needs elves?" The tradition it celebrates began by accident in 1955, when a misprinted Sears advertisement routed children's calls for Santa to the Continental Air Defense Command operations center in Colorado Springs and Col. Harry Shoup chose to play along. Seven decades later, thousands of American and Canadian volunteers still staff the phones and the tracker each December 24th, turning the continent's air and missile warning enterprise into its most public act of goodwill. Submitted by SSgt Sally, who volunteered for the 2025 PR mission.