Final Stretch

It is hard to believe that Christmas is one week away. In one week, I'll be enjoying Christmas Dinner with Mrs. Claus and celebrating the completion of yet another Christmas Eve operation. The time has really slipped up on me this year. Maybe it is because we did so many things a little bit later this year... the ramp-up of full operations was delayed a couple days, the Christmas decorations around the North Pole waited until the 1st of December, and the Christmas party was a week later.

But this is one of my favorite times... the final week of preparations! While the Christmas Eve work will "officially" get underway right at 12:01am on Saturday, December 24th; however, my preparations will start when I wake up around 3am on the 23rd and simply continue through. The final push will include tune-ups on the sleigh, proper meals for the reindeer team, last minute delivery of product to the replenishment & staging points, and final updates to the naughty-nice list. Just before nightfall at the dateline, I will lift off from the flight operations center and the Christmas Eve journey will be underway. But much work - and in many ways - the hardest work will occur in the next few days leading up to the 24th. We continue to receive & review letters (deadline is 11:59pm Dec 22nd) that are then entered into the system as customer orders. The customer orders are translated into production orders for the toys that will be manufactured by North Pole Inc. or it's outsourced manufacturing partners. All remaining toy requests are translated from customer orders to purchase orders in order to be procured from other suppliers. Product will then be manufactureed or procured. Once we have acquired the product, either through procurement or production, it is stored in the warehouse. On the 22nd and 23rd, we will begin to pick, sort, and pack the product for the individual customer orders (i.e. your requests). The product for each customer is sorted and packed into an individual Santa sack for each person. At that point, an RFID tag is applied to the bag that identifies the name and address of the intended owner. We used to use printed tags - and before that hand written tags - but the new RFID tags allow us to take 2 less elves along for the ride, thus increasing our capacity and reducing the number of required replenishment stops. Meanwhile, we are tracking global weather and building our final flight plan options. And of course the number of required public appearances - malls, parades, sporting events, talk shows, etc - spikes. But the whole place seems to be energized by the challenge rather than overwhelmed. It is an amazing sight.

I mentioned that the Christmas party was a week later than we traditionally hold it. Yesterday was the big Christmas party and it was a blast! There were no details spared with carolers, choirs, and top musical artists performing Christmas music through out the house. The food was phenonmenal... a buffet of creative global fusion cooking unlike I've ever seen... a result of the world's best chefs collaborating to create a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience for this year's North Pole Christmas Party. I am most happy to report that we broke last year's record amount of pledges to help out with gifts for needy children. We had great attendance and I believe everyone that was here - CEOs, heads of state, and celebrities - gave sacrificially. The best gift I can give any of you is the advice to find a charity or needy family near you this Christmas and ask you to give (a few clothes, food, toys, etc). The joy you get from giving will be greater than anything I can give you. You know, even I... Santa Claus... and the great group of elves, reindeer, volunteers, and strategic partners can not do everything. We need your help to make every child's Christmas cheerful. And that is really what our annual North Pole Christmas party is all about.

That's enough for tonight. I've got a staff meeting in a few minutes to review the latest routes & weather reports. Good night all!