3 months until Christmas! Greetings! It’s getting to that exciting time of the year, folks.

There have been a lot of great news stories already this month. So many good things are happening.

Are you following along with the path of the test flights of Santa’s sleigh? You can see them on the big map at North Pole Flight Command. Those flights are going pretty well, from what I understand.

I also learned this week from over at the Sleigh Barn that they are building another version of the sleigh this week. As each week rolls by, and more test flight data comes in, they tweak the design of the sleigh a little more. Then they do more testing. It is a lot of work but those elves know what they are doing.

They are very anxious to see Santa take the sleigh out for a test flight on his own. But he hasn’t done it yet. He claims he is too busy with other things.

Their reindeer are on his mind right now. We have had some reindeer return to the North Pole to help with the test flights. But the vast majority of Santa’s reindeer are not yet back to the North Pole. Some elves are getting a bit concerned about that.

Part of that is due to the weather. We have had our first real blast of winter just this past week. Lots of snow and high winds. Some elves are afraid that maybe we will get so much snow that the reindeer will not be able to get back.

Santa says that is not a realistic worry. These are Santa’s reindeer, after all. They are used to flying in bad weather. I’m sure they will all start coming back soon.

You saw the news Elf Winslow put out over the weekend about the Tracking Santa app they are working on? Pretty cool, eh? Between the texts from Flight Command and the app, I may never leave my phone on Christmas Eve this year!

More podcasts are on the way soon. And, as you saw last week, Elf Trixie has started her countdown to Operation Merry Christmas.

You have seen as well the new Shoutout feature here on SantaUpdate? That’s been some fun. Click here to request a shoutout and I will do my best to keep up with you. If you want to see the shoutouts I’ve responded to, click here.

Mrs. Claus has been by my office twice this week. She’s been asking me questions about the questions some of you are sending in to her. We’ll have an update from Mrs. Claus very soon, I promise. She is doing well, by the way. She has been very busy preparing to do some traveling with Santa later next month. More news on that later.

Thanks to all those who commented on the newsletter we sent out a week or two ago. I’m not sure yet how often we will be sending that out. Probably just a couple of more times before Santa launches. If you haven’t signed up to receive the Santa Updates in your email, click here to subscribe to it.

And thanks for your feedback as well about the addition of the North Pole Post Office to SantaUpdate. As much as you might be enjoying it, I think Santa and the postal elves are enjoying it more. It has certainly made it easier to handle all the messages coming in.

Enough news for you? Hang on, there’s a lot more coming! In talking with Elf Hugo the biggest concern in the mail that he sees coming in has to do with the Coronavirus and what Santa plans to do about it.

This will be part of the stuff talked about in an upcoming episode of the North Pole Podcast. Keep sending in your questions — we want to get them all answered in this next episode.

Also, just so you know, Elf Billy “White Shoes” Mancini, long time weatherman at the North Pole, has retired. We wish Elf White Shoes and his wife, Daisy, well as they head off to a well deserved retirement. Billy was recently seen on the North Pole golf course playing a round with Santa. He tells us he plans to spend a lot of time there, weather permitting, of course.

Santa recently announced that Elf Seymour Snow, a long time assistant in the Weather Department who has prominently been featured each Christmas Eve for years now on Kringle Radio, has been promoted to head elf in the Weather Department. Congrats, Seymour!

Whew! What a long update this month. I’m sure we’ll have a lot more exciting news to share in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!