42 Weeks Until Christmas

42 weeks until Christmas, kids. Can ya believe it?

It is a quiet time at the North Pole. Toyvember continues and elves are all hidden away in their home workshops. It does not help that the winter weather is raging outside. Hardly anything at the North Pole is moving.

Even Santa is squirreled away right now. He told Mrs. Claus he was going to participate in Toyvember this year in a very hands-on way. She tells me that is his way of saying he is having some fun.

Mrs. Claus says that Santa loves to tinker in his home workshop. But even she admits he does not often have time to spend there.

Winter at the North Pole is kind of like summer in other parts of the world. It is a time of great leisure. People cannot get out and about much so they busy themselves with projects they normally do not have time for.

For Santa, that time is right now and Mrs. Claus says Santa is very happy. Although, she says it is not fair to call it a workshop. She teases Santa that it is his playshop.

Santa has every kind of tool and gadget in there.

Now, mind you, I haven’t been there. Nobody has except Mrs. Claus. It is Santa’s personal space and nobody goes there but him. But Mrs. Claus will take food out to him there and she says it is a place that drives her crazy. It is very cluttered, at least in her eyes, but Santa seems to know where everything is.

She says he has a lot of trains in there. And model airplanes. And remote control cars. There are generations worth of toy ideas in there – all kinds of things Santa has tinkered with over the years.

She also says Santa has secrets in there. Santa toys with new ideas all the time and some ideas work and others never do.

There are half-completed projects and “tests” that Santa has done just sitting there. Santa alone understands it all and he is happy to spend hours out there working on stuff.

It is also a place where Santa works on very personal special projects. Every once in a while Santa will take on a project that is his alone – something special for someone special from Santa himself. Sometimes Mrs. Claus knows about these projects and helps with them in some ways.

Santa does not always get to participate in Toyvember. He usually does not have the time. But this year he is making the time and Mrs. Claus tells me it does her heart so much good to see Santa so happy. He loves to work with his hands.

Of course, I’m no toymaker. I don’t even have ideas for new toys. I’m clumsy with my hands. So honestly, speaking just for me, Toyvember is kind of a dull time.

I’m working on a lot of projects, which for me means writing. I just published a piece for the Santa Tracker Herald Star about an elf I met known as Big Sled Ted. It was really neat to meet this guy and write about him. If you’re an elf, you can head over there to read it.

This is an interesting time to be at the North Pole because people are spending time NOT doing North Pole things. I cannot go to all the weird different departments right now because few of them are actually working as normal. So many are doing the Toyvember thing.

I guess that’s okay. Santa has his reasons for doing this.

It just makes these dog days of winter last a lot longer for this girl.