Watch Santa As He Circles The Globe

You've got a million things to do today. The kids are out of school, and they are bored. You need them to be good so you can get through your last-minute preparations.

Maybe knowing how close Santa is - exactly how close - might help.

Well, the North American Aerospace Defense Command – yeah, the same people who are on-guard against missile strikes to the U.S. and Canada – have a tool for you: www.noradsanta.org.

For more than 50 years, NORAD has been tracking Santa Claus' movements around the globe, from the upper reaches of the North Pole to your house, NORAD will report to you exactly where Jolly Ole St. Nick is headed next.

The tradition began in 1955 when a misprint in a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement directed children to call Santa, but listed the organization's "hotline'' number instead, according to NORAD's Santa site.

The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born, the site says.

NORAD was created in 1958, and the tradition continued. Since then, NORAD employees and their families have volunteered to personally respond to phone calls and emails from children all around the world, the site says.

NORAD uses radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets from the U.S. and Canada to track Santa as he makes his way across the globe.

At 10:00 a.m., Santa had already delivered 335,156,749 gifts and was headed to the area near the Great Wall of China, according to the site.