(CNN) -- The little girl was deeply concerned. So on Christmas Eve, she called in to the North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa tracking center with an urgent question: "If I lose my tooth, and the Tooth Fairy comes, could the Tooth Fairy scare away Santa Claus?" The Santa trackers at NORAD started on Christmas Eve at 6 a.m. ET, fielding questions from all over the globe and continuing a tradition that began by accident in 1955. That year, an ad placed in a local Colorado Springs newspaper encouraged kids to call a phone number to find out Santa's whereabouts on Christmas Eve, but instead of the intended number, the operations center for what is now called NORAD was printed.NEW: Michelle Obama takes some calls from childrenThe North American Aerospace Defense Command started tracking Santa in the 1950sThis season, Santa trackers are expected to receive more than 100,000 calls, 10,000 e-mailsSome questions stray from the typical
After a quick briefing, the trackers start taking calls, relaying _'s position as shown on a big screen on the front wall of the call center.