Greetings!

It is a bit of a sad day for us here at the North Pole. Today the reindeer begin their journey back to their homeland.

Contrary to popular belief, reindeer are not native to the North Pole. (Few things are, not even penguins). Santa recruits reindeer from all over the world. There are many types of reindeer but Santa recruits them from just about every continent. They come by the thousands each year in the months leading up to Christmas. They stay for the season, work hard for Santa, and then linger after the new year for training and instruction.

Then it is time for them to go back home. Today is the day when they begin leaving.

It is hard on the year round elf families at the North Pole to see the reindeer leave. We know it has to happen. But over the months they are here we spend time with them and get to know many of them personally. Each has their own personality and all of them are very friendly.

But, as Santa reminds us, it is important for the reindeer to return to their native lands. Not only do the reindeer have family waiting for them back home it is also very healthy for them to return to their natural habitat. Santa says that over the centuries each species of reindeer have developed bodies that require native vegetation, native water and even native air that is critical for their health.

They will come back. They always do.

But we worry about them. They are our friends.

Their are a few reindeer who stay behind. They stay on Santa’s ranch in his personal barn. They are his special team of reindeer who go just about everywhere with Santa when he needs to go somewhere.

But other than those select few, all the other reindeer will be leaving in the next couple of days.

As for us elves, we continue with a busy season of our own. It is “back to school” time for elves. It is the time of year when Santa sends us to special training that will help us to learn new skills.

I’ll tell you more about that in our next update.

Until then,