Eight Months Until Christmas Eve! 1

santaclockHello my merry friends and warm greetings from the North Pole!

It has been a very exciting time here at the North Pole because time is what the last several days have been all about.

Santa has just installed a new countdown clock in Santa’s Workshop. The old clock that hangs way in the rafters at the peak of the workshop is still there — that’s the clock that slowly descends every December as the hours countdown to Santa’s launch.

But newly installed is an all new digital atomic clock that synchronizes every clock, watch, cell phone, computer and device at the North Pole and on Santa’s Sleigh.

Santa, as you know, is a tinkerer. He loves clocks of all types and he collects them. He has a special little workshop out behind his house that holds all his tools and a workbench that is specially designed for working on his clocks and watches. He doesn’t get much time during Christmas to work out there but at this time of year he goes out there nearly every day for a little while. He turns on his radio and he listens to his music while he works to repair old clocks and to build new ones. He especially loves to work on clocks that are very old.

But lately he has been spending a lot of time out there working on this new system. He had the elves in Santa’s workshop design a box to match the existing clock in the workshop that would house his new design for this special clock that would synchronize all of the North Pole systems together. It has been a project that he has worked on for years. The clocks not only read the same exact time but they countdown to different events.

For example, the countdown in the workshop keeps track of how much time Elf Bernard and his team has to make the toys. His clock runs a little faster and his countdown is different than the clock in the Wrapping Department, which can’t wrap the toys until Elf Bernard and team make them. So, in essence, every part of the North Pole — the Weather Department, the North Pole Post Office, the Sleigh Barn, the Reindeer — all have clocks that show the same time but each has their own countdown specific to what they do.

Santa was very excited when he announced it. He nearly ran out of breath trying to explain how it works and talked so fast that Mrs. Claus had to tell him to slow down. “The clock is now accurate to less than 0.2 microseconds!” Santa exclaimed. Nobody here really knows what that means but we all applauded any way.

In other news next month looks to be an usual time at the North Pole as many elves are being shipped to different parts of the world to work on special training. I will explain more about this next month. But it is very interesting and you will be surprised to learn what elves have to do to be, well, elves.

Mrs. Claus, by the way, is working on a new cookie recipe using zucchini. She has started her garden for this year — which she keeps in a greenhouse that she operates year round here at the North Pole — and she is very excited to share the cookies with kids she meets in her travels. She claims she is taking a bunch with her on a trip later next month to Germany. “I’ll bet these kids never even guess these cookies have vegetables in them!” Mrs. Claus said.

Until next month, keep counting down to Christmas!

— Elf Ernest