WASHINGTON — The jolly old man in red has completed his annual worldwide voyage, ensuring children everywhere woke up to gifts under their trees.

For the 70th consecutive year, NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has tracked Santa’s journey from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. While typically dedicated to securing the skies of North America, NORAD has been embracing the festive spirit since 1955 by following Santa’s sleigh ride.

This year, NORAD’s Santa Tracker reported a staggering total of 8,231,970,628 gifts delivered as Santa made his way around the globe.

The anticipation builds weeks in advance as the Santa Tracker website goes live, but the main event kicks off on the morning of December 24. NORAD began its Santa tracking at 6 a.m. Eastern Time, providing live updates as Santa made his way from one corner of the world to another.

For more details, visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

Callers could also dial in throughout the day to find out where Santa is on his journey by calling  1-877-HI-NORAD to ask the live operators about Santa’s location from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern. 

Users can now use the program’s website to make a call, making it easier for those without a phone or for those outside of North America to call in and track Santa. 

The tradition started in 1955 when NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, was on the lookout for any sign of a possible nuclear attack from the then-Soviet Union. NORAD says a child mistakenly called the combat operations center and asked to speak to Santa Claus. The commander on duty, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup didn’t want to disappoint the child, so he ordered staffers to start tracking Santa and take calls from children.

The story goes that the first phone call was either the result of a misprint or a misdial of a number included in a Sears advertisement in the Colorado Springs newspaper, encouraging children to call Santa.

The legend developed into the first call coming into a dedicated hotline that connected the command with a general in case of an attack. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, saying a call to a public phone line was more probable and noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations.

In a 1999 interview with The Associated Press, Shoup recalled playing along once he figured out what was happening, telling the first caller, “Ho, ho, ho, I am Santa.”

“The crew was looking at me like I had lost it,” he recalled.

He said he told his staff what was happening and told them to play along, too.

It’s not clear what day the first call came in, but by Dec. 23 of that first year, The Associated Press reported that CONAD was tracking Santa.

CONAD soon became the North American Aerospace Defense Command. It used to operate inside nearby Cheyenne Mountain. A network of tunnels had been blasted out of the mountain’s hard granite so NORAD officers could survive a nuclear attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.