A Year With Santa

A Year With Santa

It is very early Christmas morning….

By the time Santa gets back to the North Pole after making his trip around the world on Christmas Eve, kids in some countries are already waking up and finding presents.

When Santa gets home, he parks his sled, takes the reindeer inside their barn, and gives them one final treat after their long flight. He fluffs up the straw so they can sleep. Finally, he takes a peek in on the elves who are still sound asleep before he goes into his house. Mrs. Claus is sleeping, as well, so Santa tries to be very quiet. Sometimes, he gets himself some warm milk to help him sleep, but often he just sneaks quietly into bed and….crashes!

Christmas Eve is always a long, busy night!

Everyone at the North Pole wakes up on Christmas morning to a nice hot breakfast and some warm cocoa. Christmas Day is a happy, holy day, so no one is expected to do anything more work-like than unwrap gifts.  (They do pick up the old wrapping paper and ribbon, but that’s kind of fun, too). By the next day, though, there is work to be done.

The elves start with Santa’s sleigh. During his long trip around the world, the sleigh gets pretty messy. Cleaning it is work, but it is kind of fun, as well. The elves pick up candy wrappers, sweep out crumbs, and give the sleigh a full wash and wax, inside and out. The reindeer, too, get a good going-over. They get pretty grubby, themselves, flying all over the world through all kinds of weather. A hot shower and relaxing rub down make the reindeer very happy.

And then there is the workshop. Boy, is it a mess!  

After all the last-minute toys to make and presents to wrap just before St. Nick takes off, clean-up is quite a job. It takes a couple days, at least. By the time New Year’s Eve rolls around, everything is almost back in order, and everyone helps to ring in the New Year. It is one full year until Christmas comes again.

Then it’s January.

January at the North Pole is so cold! It is the middle of winter at the North Pole, after all. The reindeer like it because they get to relax and just wander around the Pole. The reindeer actually like the very cold weather.

It’s cold, but it’s also so cool! It’s cool because January is when The Clauses take a well-deserved vacation. Mr. and Mrs. Claus like to go away for a couple weeks, and their favorite place to go is Hawaii. They like all the islands, but Kauai is their favorite. After a long flight in their comfy family sleigh, the Clauses love to just snorkel and hike, or just sit on the beach, drink Mai Tais, and eat malasadas.

Usually, they take a group of elves with them. The elves love Hawaii because they get to play with their Hawaiian cousins, the menehunes. The menehunes know secret beaches to visit, special foods to eat, and funny pranks to play on unsuspecting tourists. Santa always warns the elves not to get into trouble, and usually they don’t. But every once in a while, they do play some tricks and scare somebody. (It’s usually a haole from the mainland who just can’t seem to relax and have fun.)

People usually think of Santa as chubby because of all the songs and stories about him. Here’s a secret. He looks chubby around Christmas because he has done a lot of carbo-loading from about Thanksgiving to Christmas. He does it because he is getting ready for his annual, all-night sleighride marathon.  But after Christmas, he tries to get back into shape for the work year. He gets back into his regular workouts, eats healthy, and drops off all the extra weight he put on before Christmas.

After two weeks in Hawaii, by the time he goes home, Santa has a nice tan and has lost a lot of his extra pounds. He and Mrs. Claus also stock up on boxes and boxes of macadamia nut candy to share with the elves and other friends back home. And when they get ready to leave Hawaii, he also reminds the elves not to play any of their new “menehune tricks” on the others back at the North Pole.

While Santa and Mrs. Claus are relaxing in Hawaii, the elves start to put away all the Christmas decorations which make the North Pole look so festive over the holidays. They wait until after Little Christmas on January 6. Little Christmas is the Epiphany; it celebrates the time when the Magi visited Baby Jesus. The elves are recyclers. Once the decorations are stowed, they cut up the dry trees and use the wood for the fireplace or to make wooden toys.

Once Santa is back home, and before January is over, he checks all his mail. Even though most of Santa’s mail comes before Christmas, some letters always seem to arrive late. Santa assigns a couple elves to the task. The elves sort all the new letters into three piles. The first pile is ‘thank you’ letters from the boys and girls who want to tell Santa that they appreciate their presents. That is a nice, fun pile to go through. The second pile is all those letters which got lost in the mail before Christmas. It’s usually not a very big pile, but it is important. Santa has to read those lost letters and then go back to his lists to see what he actually delivered to the children whose letters were lost.

Finally, there is also a third, much smaller pile of complaint letters. These are from boys and girls who were not happy with their gifts. A complaint came a couple years ago from a little girl who wanted a doll with brown hair. The doll she got had blond hair, and she was not happy! Another time, a little boy had asked for a bike. The boy’s parents told Santa that he was too young for a bike, and they had asked Santa to bring a cool scooter, instead. The boy was not happy, and his letter was not very nice. Santa usually keeps those complaint letters and reads them again when he makes his naughty or nice lists.

February is back-to-work month for Santa and his crew. February is the month when Santa does a lot of planning and organizing. There is a lot to do in the next 11 months!

The mail is one thing, but the workshop is quite another! It had all been cleaned up right after Christmas, but in February there is inventory to take. Santa and all the elves work on this. They need to see how much of everything is left over. That means that everybody helps count toys, games, puzzles, books, dolls – everything. The big question is always which toys might be popular next Christmas. Some toys can be made and delivered year after year, but some are popular one time only. Santa always hopes that they don’t have many of those one-time toys left in the workshop. Everything gets sorted, organized, and stored in a safe place. Whatever is left will be used next Christmas. (Waste not, want not, Santa says.)

Another part of the inventory taking is figuring out what raw materials are left. Is there any wood, any cloth, any paper, stuffing – anything at all left to start making new toys for next Christmas? Usually just about everything is used up, but there might still be some good stuff to work with. Like the extra toys, all the left-over raw materials are sorted and put into handy piles in different parts of the workshop. The inventory really helps Santa know what he will they need to get to make all the new toys, though.

Some toy making begins in February, too. Using what was sorted and piled, Santa assigns a few elves to start working on a few toys which are always popular.

Valentine’s Day also happens in February. When Valentine’s Day arrives, Mr. and Mrs. Claus go out to dinner at their favorite restaurant. It is kind of far from the Pole, though, so they hop in their mini-sleigh and fly off for a nice evening alone.  The elves like it when Mr. and Mrs. C.  go out together, especially for Valentine’s; the Clauses bring them back boxes of chocolates.

Pretty soon, it is March. Everybody loves March! Spring starts. Springtime means that it gets a little brighter and a little warmer every day. Living at the North Pole, that is a real treat. Santa works out outside starting in March.

In early March, a special team of Santa’s helpers goes to visit toy stores. This is the first toy store visit of the year. Going to toy stores is fun, but it is also work. Santa and the elves visit the stores to see what is on their shelves, to ask what they plan to stock up on, and to think about what kids might be asking for later in the year. It is still early, and there is some guess work, but it gives Santa some ideas. That is what he is looking for. New ideas.

March is also when the leprechauns come to visit. The leprechauns are another story, though. Being the Irish cousins of the elves, and being known for playing lots of practical jokes, it always makes the Clauses a little nervous when they visit. But St. Nick is a good friend of St. Patrick, and Patrick wants the leprechauns out of Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day. So off to the North Pole they go.

It is fun to watch them arrive. On a chilly morning in the middle of March, a beautiful rainbow appears. It spans the sky all the way from Ireland to the North Pole. The mischievous leprechauns slide across the sky, through the clouds, and land right outside Santa’s workshop door. All the little people play and play for a day or two. Then, when St. Partick thinks it is safe for them to return to Ireland, the leprechauns reverse the rainbow and slide back home. Once they leave, there is always some clean-up to do again. More work to do.

By April, Santa is ready to get to work in his workshop. It is a busy planning time for him and for the elves. Remember the basic toy-making that started in February? Well, in April, he assigns more toy-making tasks to different groups of elves. He starts with some basic toys. Puzzles are always popular, but Santa wants to make sure they have exciting new pictures every year. One task for the group of artistic elves is to find fun, new picture to use. Some of the pictures come from books, or magazines; Santa and the elves also take some on their cell phones. They use original paintings and drawings, as well. Only the most artistic elves get to design those puzzles.    

When they have a few good picture ideas, they think about puzzle sizes and numbers of pieces. Some pictures will be used for puzzles with big pieces so that they are a little easier for younger children.  Other puzzles are harder and harder with more pieces or more challenging pictures. The group of artistic elves really has a challenging job ahead of them. Of course, all the pictures have to be Ok-ed by Santa, himself.

Another group of athletic elves is assigned to work on sports equipment.  Like puzzles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, and all kinds of balls are popular every year. These things come in all sizes. Making bats and sticks means some of the elves are cutting pieces of wood. That means working on lathes or with saws and other ‘dangerous’ machinery. Equipment making usually goes to a group of older, stronger elves.

It seems that every year, one toy or other gets moved out of production and into Santa’s toy museum. A toy which used to be quite popular but is seldom requested anymore is a marionette. A lot of children don’t even know what marionettes are. The elves always make one or two, just in case, but not nearly as many as they used to made in the past.

Sometimes Santa hears about a popular new kind oftoy. When he does, he takes some pictures and emails them back to the elves at the North Pole. If it something completely new, he buys one and mails it back so that the elves can start some reverse engineering to figure out how to build it before Christmas. He had to do this the first time he ever saw a Furby, many years ago. Now. It’s in the museum.

Before anyone can actually make puzzles, dolls, bats or anything else, though, they need some supplies. They have already checked to see what raw materials are left from last year, but now they have to match the right kinds of material – wood, paint, paper, cloth, all kinds of stuff – with the work.

Once all the preliminary work is done, they go shopping for supplies. Santa uses a special, heavy-duty sleigh for carrying all the stuff he needs to start actually building toys. It takes several trips to a lot of different places to get all the supplies they need, and Santa knows that this is just the beginning. There will be a lot more trips to the hardware stores, lumber yards, and fabric shops before they are done.

And so it goes. They go through the same processes for everything, old stuff and new stuff, sleds, hockey sticks, dolls, doll clothes, everything.

Sometime in April, Santa usually has a visit from the Easter Bunny. Bunny comes at a different time every year because Easter Sunday is different every year. Although the Clauses love to have him visit, it is a busy time. But because it is Eastertime, Santa always stops for a day or so to visit. Besides, the Easter Bunny also brings the elves chocolates which he has left over after he’s filled and dropped off all the Easter baskets.

May is a very pretty month. Flowers start to bloom, the sun is warm, and summer is getting closer and closer. As the elves continue their toy making tasks, Santa has another job to do. May is the time when Santa starts working on his lists. People usually think of the naughty and the nice lists, but Santa has his other lists to work on even before he starts the more famous ones.

First, he goes back – again! – to all the mail that came in after Christmas. He double checks addresses to be sure that they are all up to date. Then he makes his cross-off and add-on lists. (Bet you never thought about these, right?)  His cross-off list includes all the young people who “age out”. Santa figures that a boy or girl has aged-out when that kid starts to ask for clothes instead of toys.  He always does something special for these kids, though. He wants them to be sure that they know that he still loves them.  Some young people write to say they are too old to have him visit their houses anymore. All these boys and girls become part of Santa’s team of “older” helpers. Lots of moms and dads remember this time and help keep the magic of Christmas alive in their homes.

After the cross-offs, Santa starts a list with all the new babies, and those who are expected before next Christmas. They will start to receive presents this year at Christmas. The cross-off and the add-on lists are often about the same length, so, in the end, his numbers balance out.

In June, it is nice and warm at the Pole. It even gets into the 70s! A lot of work has been going on at the North Pole since the beginning of the year. Santa is in pretty good shape by June.

By June, too, after checking addresses, adding and deleting names, Santa is pretty close to his finishing his new list.  Now, Santa starts the harder job of looking into the naughty and nice categories. He checks in on children everywhere. He used to have to actually make trips, but now, with social media and cell phones, it’s a lot easier.

Santa wants every boy and girl to be well cared for, and to be “nice”.  He does what he can to make sure that happens.

He checks with moms and dads, of course, but also brothers and sisters, teachers, friends, cousins – just about everybody each child knows. This is a very important, hard job, and even with all the new technology, it takes a long time. Actually, checking to be sure all the boys and girls are doing ok doesn’t really stop all year long. (Here’s a hint: after all year in schools, teachers know their students very well. They sometimes have a ‘stories’ to tell Santa!)             

All spring, Mrs. Claus has been busy, too. While others are planning for toy making, she makes plans for the North Pole Gift Shoppe and Café. She wants to be sure that the Gift Shoppe is stocked with all sorts of little gifts, post cards, and other things of interest to the tourists who start arriving around this time of year. The café is stocked with coffees, cocoas, cold drinks and snacks and goodies from all around the world. (She sells a lot of fruitcake during tourist season.) Everyone feels welcome when they come to visit her shop. Visitors also enjoy a walking tour around the Pole, and Mrs. C trains the tour elves in what to show – and what not to show!

Then before June is over, summer officially begins.

Now it is July. Even at the North Pole, days are longer, brighter and warmer. Everybody has been working hard. Around the 4^th of July, Santa and Mrs. Claus and all the elves take a few days off. They can’t take too much time off because the year is already half over. But they have been doing so much planning, designing, checking, buying and toy making that they all need a bit of a break. To celebrate the 4^th of July, the Clauses put on a big barbeque. Everyone at the North Pole has a chance to catch their breath, watch beautiful fireworks, and just play.

When their short vacation is over, everyone comes back to work in earnest.

The workshop starts buzzing – again. All the elves have been assigned tasks working on new toys. Some cut, some paint, some sew, some put parts together. Some just keep track of supplies, and run to the hardware stores, paint stores, fabric shops and other places to buy more of everything.

By July, those elves who were working on reengineering new toys have plans for making them. They figured out what supplies were needed, how long it should take to make each one, who is assigned to work on them, and finally, how they will be inspected before they are delivered. Now, they just get busy and build them.

The work continues into August, as well. Some of the elves continue to work on the usual, expected, toys while others begin the work on the brand-new things.

This is also the time to start creating new Christmas cards and printing popular Christmas books. These usually don’t change a lot from year to year, but there is often a new book or two each year. Somebody has to do these jobs, too.

And then there are the Christmas candies, the candy canes of all sizes and colors, the holiday chocolates, and specialty treats. The North Pole kitchen gets pretty warm in the summer, but this is a favorite assignment for the elves.

The workshop is humming around the clock.

Tourists are visiting. The Gift Shoppe is busy

The bakery is turning out fruitcakes and cookies galore.

It’s time to restock supplies.

August is not a slow month at The Pole.

That’s when the “Brrrrr” months begin: September, October, November, and of course, December.

In September, as toy making is in high gear, there are also some new tasks for several of the elves. Some are assigned to go to school. Yes, go to school!  At their schools, the elves fit in as the “new kids” in classrooms all over the world. They enter school at all grade levels. The new-kid elves have two jobs to do. They are supposed to listen and to watch. They listen to the other kids to learn about toys, what is currently trending and what is likely to be on this year’s ask list. They also listen for news on moves, new addresses, and other changes Santa will need to know about.

They watch how students behave, too. They like to see kids be kind to one another, to help their friends and teachers, and to be polite on the bus or in the lunchroom. They don’t like to do it, but sometimes, they also have to tell Santa when somebody has been very naughty. Santa tries to help that student out before it is too late for Christmas. He has conversations with moms and dads and with teachers to see if something is going on that they might need to be aware of. Santa wants his nice list to be as long as it can be.

By the end of September, tourism has slowed way down, and Mrs. Claus closes the gift shop. Now it’s her turn to take inventory and begin to plan for next year. It all seems to happen so fast.

By October, the workshop is crazy! Elves are still making and finishing lots of the toys, boxes of Christmas cards have been sent to stores early, and there is a lot of counting going on. Counting toys, counting down days til Christmas, counting how many more toys are needed. Toy making picks up speed because time is getting short. Santa doesn’t stop working, but there is a little breather because of Halloween. For a while in October, kids are thinking about costumes, ghosts, monsters, and Trick-or-Treating. Of course, the elves think about trick-or-treat candy, too.

During the Halloween season, Santa starts checking his nice and naughty lists in earnest. There are always surprises on both lists. Santa needs to be sure that every child is accounted for on one list or the other, because after Halloween, Santa-letter season starts fast.

The North Pole is always pretty, and there are a lot of Christmasy things around. It isn’t really decorated yet; it just usually looks…nice. That will change in the coming weeks. So to get ready, a team of elves goes into the storage shed and starts to bring out all the real Christmas decorations. After they do, they test the light bulbs, check the ornaments, and dust off the mangers. Christmas is getting closer and closer.

Oh, and early gift wrapping starts.

In November, letters to Santa start pouring in. Many boys and girls want to get their letters in early so that Santa can be sure to have what they want that year. Every day, the mailman brings bags and bags of letters from children all over the world.

(Here’s a hint for everybody. Think about what you are asking for. If your list is very long, Santa will look it over and find one or two things he thinks he can deliver. Therefore, it’s a good idea to let him know what you really, really want, and put that at the top of your list. Also don’t ask for too many things. If you send a list that is too long, it will look like you are being greedy. Santa might move you to his naughty list. By the way, Santa loves it when children think of others. It almost guarantees a spot on the ‘nice’ list.)

Two more important things happen in November, as well. One team of weather elves keeps a close eye on weather reports. Moving through the month, this helps Santa plan out his itinerary. The team uses the North Star as the beginning and end points for planning. Every once in a while, the weather is so bad in one place or another that Santa has to change his route. That makes it harder for him to get to every house on Christmas Eve. The weather team has a very important job.

The other important thing in November is called “Santa School”. Santa offers special training for his “Santa Substitutes”, those “Santas” who talk to children in the stores around the world. Some people call them fake Santas, but they really are not. Santa Claus actually teaches them what they need to know so that any child who wants to talk to Santa can do so. After training, Santa calls or texts the Santa Subs every week in November and into December just to see how things are going. Another big job.

Now, it’s time to decorate. Beautiful trees are cut and brought into the house and the workshop. Sparkling lights and beautiful ornaments are hung. More than one creche is set up. Christmas is in the air!

Thanksgiving is near the end of the month. That means it’s just about one more month until Christmas Eve. By Thanksgiving, Santa is getting all prepared for the biggest night of the year.  Thanksgiving is the perfect day for Santa to start his pre-Christmas carbo-loading. Along with turkey, Santa eats lots of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. He’s going to need a lot of extra energy on Christmas Eve.

Early in December, Santa takes a slow, dry run around the earth. The weather elves plan the trip, and Santa makes a few stops along the way to drop off secret stashes of supplies. Even though he gets treats from boys and girls around the world all night long, and even though lots of boys and girls also put out snacks for the reindeer, Santa likes to be sure that they have a few healthy snacks, as well, just in case they need them. He tucks away a few extra gifts, as well, again, just in case they get caught by surprise in somebody’s house.

Getting caught short is not something Santa likes or wants to do. Starting about the 2^nd week of December, Santa and his number-cruncher elves check and double check all the names on all Santa’s lists. They make sure they have all the gifts, and they also make sure all those gifts are arranged in the sleigh in the correct drop-off order. One year, Santa had to search and dig deep into his sack to find a special doll for a little girl in Rhodesia; the doll had ended up in the Rhode Island section of his bag. Phew! He wasted some precious time looking for that doll.

Carbo-loading continues throughout the month. Santa’s workouts also take on a more serious feel. The reindeer, too, do more running and flying around the Pole. Christmas Eve is a major workout all by itself.

As he makes his trip around the world, Santa travels from cold to hot to cold to hot to cold places all night long. To help him stay comfortable all night, his sleigh has a pair of coolers, one on each side of his seat. One cooler is to warm up, the other is to cool off. One of his most trusted elves makes sure that the cooler is iced and full of cold drinks, and that the other box is filled with hand warmers and hot cocoa.

When Santa is ready to go, the reindeer line up and get into their harnesses. They all have one last nibble and sip, and they are set to go. Santa and the elves haul the huge red sack filled with presents and put it into the back of the sleigh. Santa puts on his famous red suit, and furry mittens. He gave Mrs. Claus a kiss, and off he goes!

That is when the Christmas magic begins in earnest. There is magic all night long, and Santa loves it!

By the time Santa gets back to the North Pole after making his trip around the world, some kids are already waking up and finding presents. Santa parks his sled, takes the reindeer inside, gives them one final treat, and fluffs up the straw so they can sleep. He peeks in on the elves then he goes into his house. Santa is very quiet. After some warm milk, he sneaks quietly into bed and falls sound asleep

Christmas Eve is always a long, magical night after a long, busy year!

Then it is time to start all over again. And another year with Santa begins!