2 Months Until Christmas

We are down to just 2 months until Christmas and that makes it prime time here at the North Pole.

Well, not really. Prime time is actually what we call Operation Merry Christmas. But we’re really close to that. Everything is really humming here at the North Pole as we work to get everything ready.

This next week is going to be fun. The week of Halloween always is. It’s kind of the big party to kick off the big season here at the North Pole.

But we know as well that you’re out there getting ready for Christmas. We can feel it. There are way more visitors to our websites. Santa is getting a ton of mail over at the North Pole Post Office. And we have questions like crazy coming in.

In fact, we’re hearing from a lot of teachers and they are sending in lists of questions. We are going to focus on those a little in the next few weeks with all the features, chats and podcasts that we have scheduled.

But for today, right here, I want to answer a couple of questions for Mrs. Richardson’s 3rd grade class in Missouri. I received a really nice envelope with a number of nice drawings and some really neat cards. And there were questions, LOTS of questions, many of which we have answered many times before. But there are a couple of new questions that came in from them that are unique and fun.

In fact, I cannot wait to answer them. Here’s the first one:

What does Santa eat besides cookies – anything really good for him?

First of all, that’s great question. We have talked before about Santa’s size and how many are concerned for his health. That’s more of a perception deal. Santa is not exactly portrayed nicely by the media and in the movies or on television.

He’s actually very fit, especially for a man his age. Santa is very active. He exercises, works very hard at a very physical job, and he enjoys robust health.

Part of that means eating good things. Santa loves all kinds of foods – especially anything homemade. And yes, it is true, he enjoys cookies. Especially at Christmas.

Christmas comes but once a year, as Santa likes to say, and it is okay to enjoy what comes with it. And that means cookies and eggnog and food and other such stuff.

But it also means enjoying foods that people do not actually consider “Christmasy” – like carrots. Or foods like salmon. Or asparagus. Santa loves all this stuff.

In fact, he enjoys foods from all over the world. Some foods he cannot get here at the North Pole so when he travels he takes time to enjoy foods from different places. For example, there’s a seaweed Santa loves to eat when he goes to Japan. (He’s a big sushi fan and of Japanese food in particular).

So to answer your question, yes, Santa loves LOTS of really good foods.

Does Santa use a whip when flying the reindeer?

This is an outstanding question. This is again an invention of book writers, movie makers and even the media outside of the North Pole.

Of course Santa does NOT use a whip. Ever. He never has. And he never will.

Santa’s reindeer are bridled and there are reins he uses that are connected to the bridles. Santa flies the sleigh and gets the reindeer to pull in one direction or another by pulling the reins to one side or the other. To get them to slow down, he pulls back on the reins. The get them to go he will use his voice to command and then gently raise the reins to bring them down on the reindeer’s back – a kind of slight knock.

Do you see those two words, “rein” and “reindeer”?

Reins were actually invented by Santa hundreds and hundreds of years ago and he developed them while learning to move a sleigh with “reindeer”. How do you think reindeer got their name? It came from the reins Santa invented. Reins in that time have been used for all kind of other animals who labor with humans.

Santa has a very interesting story with the reindeer. You might want to listen to this episode of the North Pole Podcast to learn a little bit more about it.

We thank Mrs. Richardson’s class for their questions, especially the ones above. We will be glad to work with any school teacher out there who brings forward questions like this. We all learn from them. If you are a teacher who wants to work with the North Pole in this way, please get hold of us.