Countdown Clock Begins to Descend in Santa's Workshop 1Today marks one month to Christmas and that can mean only one thing here at the North Pole: the countdown clock has been raised in the workshop. It starts out at the highest peak of the ceiling and everyday it gets a little closer to the ground until Christmas Eve when it touches the floor.

“That clock is just like the weight on my shoulders” Elf Bernard says. “It gets a little bit heavier every day until the job is done. It serves as a reminder to every elf here in the workshop that we have now entered into the final stretch and there is no room for errors if we hope to get this done on time.”

The month mark also means that it won’t be long before the first test flight of the sleigh. “I have gone over it twice with a fine tooth comb and I have deemed her airworthy” said Elf Quinton. “We should have her in the air any day now. Santa is like a kid at Christmas when he gets to fly the new sleigh for the first time each year.”

Elf Wally is reporting a back log of gifts to be wrapped. “The gifts seem to be a little larger this year so it is taking us a little longer than normal to wrap them. It’s going to take us every last second to get them done this year.” he said.

Elf Victor says that all of the reindeer are healthy and looking good. “They are in the best shape I have seen them in for years. It should make for one exciting reindeer games in a couple of weeks.” Elf Victor did not that he has many mama reindeer about to have their babies and that is always an exciting time at the North Pole.

Elf Hugo reports that the North Pole post office is being overrun. “This is the highest volume of actual written letters that we have seen since we started accepting emails. It seems that kids have returned to the traditional way of sending a letter to Santa. I’m going to be forced to call reinforcements soon if this volume keeps up.”

Things are even busy here at the newsroom. We receive hundreds of requests each day for interviews with Santa and the elves. We also have several channels wanting to do a special on the reindeer. We’ve had to add 2 extra staffers this year just to help take all of the calls. We tell them every year that Santa only does 1 interview a year but that doesn’t stop them from calling back year after year.

Just a reminder, you can read some of the public answers we provide to common questions we receive at the North Pole by logging on to the Merry Forums of My Merry Christmas where we have a special area set up for us just for this purpose.

— Elf Ernest