Taking calls from children around the world curious about Santa’s whereabouts may sound like child’s play — a cheerful holiday diversion that elicits cozy memories of Christmases gone by.

Not always.

Sometimes, volunteers with the annual NORAD Tracks Santa mission end up in the hot seat.

“Does Santa like gingerbread?” a young caller asked John Johnson, one of nearly 1,500 volunteers expected to take tens of thousands of calls and thousands of emails at Peterson Air Force Base on Tuesday as part of the mission, in its 65th year.

Track Santa here.

Here’s how to track Santa with NORAD today

Inquiring minds, mostly children, are expected to ask about St. Nick’s position high above the globe — when he’ll be at their house, if they’re on the naughty or nice list. Simple stuff.

But cookie preference?

“I said, ‘Yes, who doesn’t like gingerbread?'”  Johnson, an Alaska Air National Guard veteran, said with a chuckle.

NORAD readies for 65th Christmas Eve mission tracking Santa

The question was a veritable softball compared to the one chucked at Senior Airman Spencer Allison, with the 21st Communications Squadron, on Tuesday by a young girl. 

She was particularly intense, rattling off a long list of gifts she had asked for.

Then came the question that required Allison to think on his feet: Did Santa’s sleigh have a giant Olaf doll with her name on it?

“I hope you get exactly what you asked for,” was his carefully worded reply.

Just shy of 10 a.m. Tuesday, NORAD’s merry elves — a mix of local military, family members and civilian volunteers — had taken 21,000 calls, a slight uptick over that time last year.

Clad in fluffy Santa hats and Christmas light-adorned reindeer horns, they watched Father Christmas traverse the globe in real time on giant screens as the count of gifts delivered ticked upward — nearly 2 billion as of 10 a.m.

“We’ve got kids calling in from all over the world, mostly from Canada, Mexico, the U.S. — North America” right now, said Col. Thomas Falzarano, commander of the 21st Space Wing and father of five.

“Colorado Springs is bringing a smile to kids around the entire world today.”

It takes a tech village to track Santa on Christmas Eve

It’s a tradition that began in this military town on Christmas Eve in 1955, when an advertisement from a downtown department store prominently published in The Gazette offered children the chance to call Santa — at the wrong number.

Instead of Santa, children got Col. Harry Shoup, who was in a military command center watching for an attack.

Shoup assured the child he was Santa — and the rest is history.

Answering emails and calls in German on Tuesday morning was Ruth Reichert, an Air Force Academy civilian, and her German-speaking daughter, Franziska.

The duo has volunteered for the past seven years but has tracked Santa online via NORAD’s website since the younger Reichert was in elementary school.

Santa Tracker – MAP

“You spread hope all throughout the day, and the kids are very, very grateful,” Ruth said with a wide smile.

In her experience, requests are often simple and sweet. “They don’t want a lot of detail.”

But there was an outlier.

Ruth recalled a young boy who called in from England last year, concerned about the night’s logistics. He was staying at his grandma’s house, which had two chimneys.

What if grandma started a fire? Would Santa know which chimney to avoid?

“Santa is magic,” she recalled saying, a gleam in her eye. “He’s not going to get hurt. He knows which one to use.”