Happy November Greetings, all!

We have hit an unusual spell of kind of warm weather — well, at least for the North Pole. It is still very cold outside but the sun has been shining bright every day this week and this weekend looks to be much the same. That has led to just one thing here: lots of crazy Christmas decorating going on!

You already know that we love Christmas and you know that we have a big Christmas light contest the night of Thanksgiving. So all week the elves have just been going all-out in an effort to add more and more lights to their homes, trees and yards. In fact, the market here at North Pole Village is almost completely out of lights even though they order that stuff by the truckload.

Our other merry work continues. Santa’s workshop has been just crazy busy, with elves now working both day shifts and night shifts. But folks over there are pretty happy because they appear to be ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, the elves in sleigh pilot training have taken to the skies and you can see them at all hours of the day test piloting sleighs. It is exciting to watch them as they grow in their skills.

We have also noticed a greater population of reindeer here at the North Pole. This is not unexpected. In fact, over the next three weeks we expect more and more reindeer to be arriving at the North Pole. Not all of them will be able to fly for Santa on Christmas Eve but they come anyway by the thousands to train for Christmas and to eventually take part in the annual reindeer games.

So it is a very busy, happy time here at the North Pole. We do not know how long this nice weather will be with us but we’re excited to have it because it gives us all a chance to spend more time out in the fresh air and doing fun things.

— Elf Ernest