9 Months Until Christmas

Hello and guess what? There are just 9 months left until Christmas!

This is a little bit of a lonely time of year at the North Pole. We don’t see as much interaction with the world during this month as we will later, but that does not mean we don’t have things going on.

We still get a lot of questions and one of the biggest so far for this new year has to do with what Santa is thinking. Last year, Santa sent a very important message to his elves around the world discussing the need for love and kindness. The big question right now is if Santa has a message for this year to convey.

The answer, of course, is yes.

When will Santa send this year’s message?

Well, I’m not sure. But it certainly won’t be this month or next. He doesn’t feel we have the world’s attention yet and I think he’s right about that.

So Santa – and all of us at the North Pole, really – are focused on getting ready for this year.

Where do we stand?

Santa has met already with his top elves. They discussed all that happened last year and what we can do better this year. We have new goals and everyone has started to work on those.

Over at North Pole Flight Command they are celebrating not one but TWO years in a row of record-breaking flight times. That has created something of a challenge for them this year. How do you improve on that?

I can tell you the sleigh designers, test pilots and flight engineers are debating plans for this year. Test flights of Santa’s new sleigh for this year are supposed to begin in June. But we don’t even have a design yet settled on. That is still being discussed. We’ll keep you updated on that.

Santa has been meeting with the Toy Department a lot this year. While Santa’s workshop has been busy making traditional toys the new toys for this year are still being discussed. This is totally normal. We know that what might be popular and in demand in March might not be the same come December.

They are trying to figure out what children will want come December.

Did you know they have thousands of elves who work on that? They are right now out in the world, attending conventions and visiting groups of children to introduce new toys and watch how they are played with.

This kind of test phase goes on for quite a while but before too many more months they need to come back and report to Santa about what they learn. Then Santa will need to decide what he thinks the most popular toys will be and how many more need to be made.

He doesn’t always get it exactly right and many Christmases go by where we don’t get enough toys made because we didn’t figure it out. Santa has worked to resolve this problem for many years.

In another month or two it will be vacation time at the North Pole. As elves, we pretty much have to get our vacations done before Christmas in July.

I have not yet heard what vacation plans are this year for Santa and Mrs. Claus. I am sure they have something in mind, but Santa hasn’t said anything yet.

What about you? Do you have vacation plans this year?