Santa or UFO? We may never know, but 'significant' number of reports near Christmas, researcher says

That flying object in the sky on Christmas with the red glowisn't necessarily Santa.

It turns out the holiday season is a prime time for UFO spotting, according toChris Rutkowski, head of Winnipeg-based UfologyResearch. He's researchedthe phenomenon for three decades andcompilesan annual Canadian survey of sightings.

"Looking over just the past 30 years of UFO reports in the Canadian UFO survey, Ifound that there were 75 cases that occurred on Christmas Day. And that's quite significant," he said.

"There certainly are more cases in the summer, but it's curious that there's been so many around Christmas itself, and in the days preceding and just after."

And that's only Canada. There are many more when reports from other countries are included, Rutkowski said.

"Most were simply lights in the sky, and yes, some were of a single red light flying overhead followed by a string of others. But others did not seem to have a reindeer explanation," he said.

On Christmas Eve 2010, a woman in Thompson, Man., said she saw three unexplained reddish-orange lights in a triangle in the sky for close to an hour.After some time, the middle light fell and faded, followed by the others.

And on Christmas Eve 2012, a couple driving near Kanata, Ont., stopped their truck to watch a square object with glowing, pulsating red lights moving soundlessly to the northwest for three to four minutes.

Mysterious lights in New Zealand

In othercases,people have reported seeing something with a little more structure, Rutkowski said.

On Christmas Day in2017, around1:30 a.m., a person was driving between Saint-Jovite and Saint-FaustinLac-Carr in Quebec, northwest of Montreal,when they saw a bright light, "like a photo flash,"approaching.

The object flew directly over the car, according to the person, who said it was triangular shaped and seemed to have three turbines below it.

"I could see one of them very well and make out the turbine's metal or steel spokes," the person said, according to Rutkowski's report.

As it passed overhead, the person looked in the rear-view mirror to see it again, but the object had vanished.

WATCH | Report from 1983 looks at some ManitobaUFO sightings:

From the CBC archives: Manitoba UFOs (1983)

9 years ago

Duration 7:37

This CBC-TV feature report from March 1983 looks at some of Manitoba's well-known UFO sightings, including "Charlie Redstar" in Carman.

Then there was the UFO seen over Chilliwack, B.C., on Christmas night in 2008. Witnesses saw a star-like light, like a satellite, moving from the south and travelling north, when it suddenly performed a "loop-the-loop" and went back to the south again, all within about 25 seconds.

Globally, there have been some significant UFO cases at this time of year, said Rutkowski.

A famous example is theKaikoura lights, reported inNew Zealand just before Christmas 1978. The crew of a cargo aircraft watcheda series of strange lights flying around their planefor several minutes before disappearing, and then reappearing elsewhere.

The pilots described the lights as ranging in size from small to as big asa house, and allflashing brilliantly. About a week later, atelevision crew fromAustralia on aflight toChristchurchsaw and recorded the lights, one of which reportedly followed the aircraft almost until landing.

Despite an investigation by the New ZealandMinistry of Defence, the mystery of the lights remainsunsolved.

There's also the Rendlesham Forest lights in Suffolk, England,whichstarted with a sighting on Christmas night into Boxing Day in 1980.

American airmen stationed at RAF Woodbridge in eastern England reportedly saw mysterious lights and a triangular shape in the forest outside the perimeter fence. When they went to investigate, theairmen foundindentations in the ground and detected strange radiation readings.

St. Nick in Yukon?

One of the most famous reports associated with Santa happened on Dec. 11, 1996, inYukon. Though a bit early, several of the witnesses said they thought they were actually seeingSt. Nick and his crew, said Rutkowski.

A man waswatching TVwhen he noticed a long row of lights moving in the distance through a window. He later said he thought itwas a 747 jet,but there wasn't a whisper of sound.

The UFO consisted of "four big balls of light in a row," red-yellow in colour with "a little bit of blue." At the left and right side of this row of lights were smaller lights that were orange and green, according to the report.

The man called the rest of hisfamily to have a look and histhree children, the oldest of whom was six, declared it to be Santa and his reindeer.

The UFO slowly drifted from left to right and appeared low, just above the trees.There were also what appeared to be white sparkles dropping away from the base of the larger lights,according to the report.

More than 35 peoplereported the object but in the end, the search for an explanation was given a boost by the Canadian Space Agency quite literally.

"It turns out that a rocket booster was coming in at just exactly that right time right over the Yukon," Rutkowski said."But it's hard not to imagine that something a little supernatural wasgoing on up there."

Explanations for most but not all sightings

In Canada there areabout 900 to 1,000 UFO reports each year. Itmust bereiterated that mosthave simple explanations,Rutkowski said, but"there are some unusual cases that don't."

One of those happened,as if to ring in the new year, early on the morning of Dec. 31, 1997, over Resolute Bay, Nunavut.

With the temperature hovering at 40 C, a bright white light was seen moving northwardat an estimated altitude of about 122 metresand at a speed calculated by the region's airport manager as645 to 800km/h.

"Witnesses included some of the meteorological technicians who are working up there, and they said, 'Nothing flies here at that speed, and especially not at 3 a.m.' Andthey'd be aware of anything flying overhead,"Rutkowski said.

"So, you know, some of those cases do have some mystery to them. But we're not prepared to say those are the aliens coming to visit on Christmas.

"Unless you consider a fellow in a red suit an alien as well."