1 Month Until Christmas

It is just 1 month until Christmas. Can you believe it? The 24th, Christmas Eve, is just a month away.

I cannot thank you enough for counting down to Christmas with us all year. Of course, it gets crazy busy from here on out. We will be updating you every day.

This week of Thanksgiving is always  joyful and busy at the North Pole. It has to be that way. We have worked so hard all year long and getting to those point for Santa and all the team is quite an accomplishment. It’s happy work and this is a time when we really enjoy it together.

Thanksgiving, as we have told you many times, is Santa’s favorite holiday. Many think that’s a little crazy. I mean, why wouldn’t Christmas be Santa’s favorite holiday, right?

It’s because Thanksgiving is part of Christmas. In every way. Santa loves that the first thing we do until the lights of Christmas is to get together to be thankful. He just loves that. He loves that we enjoy the presents of each other through the presence of each other. We’re together before we give.

Our plans every week of Thanksgiving are carefully made each year. Some years, such as this one, things line up neatly. Here it is the Sunday before Thanksgiving and it is exactly one month until  Christmas Eve. How perfect is that?

I’ve given Elf Frank and Elf Crash today off. There is no North Pole Radio News report today because these guys have been here every day since Halloween and they will be here everyday – maybe even more than once each day – between now and when they broadcast the Tracking Santa Around the World Christmas radio show on Christmas Eve. They are hard working elves and they need a little break before it gets really super busy.

This week you will hear from them plenty. We have many events of this week, including the Thanksgiving Day Elf Parade, which they report from live every Thanksgiving. But there will be many other updates from them as well.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated events for the elves will be on Friday morning, very early. Santa’s workshop has a giant atrium made of glass. Looking up and out from Santa’s Workshop you can see the snowy outside and the glistening stars. Many people love to go into the workshop so they can just look up. It’s so pretty.

At the top of the atrium is a giant sparkling ball with a clock in it that never stops counting down. But starting Friday that ball begins to descend from the very tippy top of the atrium. Everyday it moves a little lower until, on Christmas Eve, the day that Santa launches, it is at about eye level to elves working in Santa’s workshop.

That drop begins Friday, the day we begin to countdown the final phase of Operation Merry Christmas – the delivery phase.

All our work this year is ready. The reindeer are ready. Santa’s sleigh is just about done test flights. Santa’s workshop is still working but has made so many things. The candy canes are ready, so are the stockings. Everything has lined up just right to have a fun time between now and Christmas Eve.

Santa himself is still not back home. He’s out there, visiting with you wherever you are. He will fly home in his sleigh very late Wednesday night to be here all day Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together. Thursday night he will lead us on walkabout all over North Pole Village to see the Christmas lights.

We hope you join us for the celebrations this week. And for the news each day the News Department will post on these pages and on North Pole Radio News. It’s going to be a great week, the start to an even greater month — which is the start of a great Christmas!