Last Day of November

As I walked across the Village Square this morning, on my way to HQ, I couldn't help but be impressed by the Decorating Team. The Starbucks wasn't even open yet and half the village was already decorated. Elves and reindeer were scurrying every which way with ladders, lights, ornaments, garland, and more. The tree was just arriving but already a crew had assembled to hoist it into position. I was already anticipating the tree lighting but I still couldn't help but notice a dull headache that I'd had since I awoke.

Once I got to HQ, I attended an early morning slate of meetings including an updated review of the Christmas Eve travel plans, daily staff meeting, and an update from the Decorating Committee. My headache was still with me as I headed out to the sleigh to begin my day of mall appearances but I took a couple of aspirin and it was gone by the time we landed in Shanghai. The day went fast... relatively speaking. Before I knew it, we had finished up in Honolulu and were headed home for the evening.

Upon my return, the Decorating Team was putting up the final preparations. I made a quick inspection round with team lead. Everything looked good and I signed off to let the official tree lighting go on as scheduled. I LOVE the annual North Pole Christmas Tree Lighting. Hot Chocalate, roasted chestnuts, hot apple cider, ginger bread cookies, Christmas carols... how much more fun can that be. And the best part is I can just be myself and enjoy the ceremony as a participant. Mrs. Claus gets the lighting honors at the North Pole.

But I had an hour or so before the lighting, so I rushed home and met Mrs. Claus for dinner. Then it was off to the lighting. What a grand celebration! Of course, it only lasted a couple of hours and it was back to work for everyone. I retired to my office at the house (I have one there and at HQ) to make some phone calls, review the day's status reports, and finish up this blog. Now as I look at the clock, I'm thinking there is a ton to do but my alarm clock goes off in 3 hours. So I better get to bed. Good night!

Papparazzi

We maintain tight security here at the North Pole. While my schedule is often published ahead of time, we do use "doubles" on occasion to thwart any possible threats. Most of the potential threats are fairly minor... many are just a nuisance... like the Papparazzi. During the Christmas season, they usually leave me alone. I'm out and about regularly.... there really is no story or scoop. It's during the off-season when they start to hover. They all want that photo of me our of my red Santa suit or doing something that they believe to be "non-Santa-like" such as running, water skiing, etc. And of course I just want my privacy.

Most of the Papparazzi are good people simply trying to make a living. They mean no real harm. And they're generally ethical... at least in their dealings with me (of course, I do control the naughty & nice list). But there are a few that stoop to very unethical tactics to make a buck or two. Which is what brings me to today's post....

You have likely seen the story on the current 7 night string of late night partying and club-hopping through NYC by Brittany, Paris, and Lindsay. Pictures and video - purportedly from last night - are starting to circulate that seem to indicate I was out partying with them. Hey... I wish them a good time but I can assure you that I was not with them. First of all, I'm way too old for that. Second, I was busy here at the North Pole with late night staff meetings and a surprise visit to the workshop to check on our current status. Our security and intelligence teams are researching the incident. We believe one or more of our contracted "doubles" may have been involved. I can assure you that we will gather all of the evidence and deal appropriately with any North Pole Inc. employees and/or contractors intentionally involved in assisting with this act of fraud upon the general public.

So far, no major media outlets - digital, print, radio, or TV - have picked up the pictures. Melody has been working the phones and we believe that we have presented enough evidence to convince them this is a fraud. Nevertheless, we encourage all parents to monitor the media so that your children are not misled to believe that I am out partying when I should be preparing for Christmas Eve.

Live Animals

Our annual debate over the "Live Animal Policy" dominated our staff meeting agenda this morning. Every year we re-visit various governmental policies on the import/export of live animals. Inevitably, the topic leads to a heated debate over whether or not we should even be in the business of fulfilling Christmas wishes for live animals. We keep the option open every year... working with the UN and individual nations to negotiate special considerations for our Christmas delivery of live animals... however, more years than not, we have chosen to not fulfill Christmas requests for live animals. As you can imagine, it is a passionate debate with more than one facet to the sides that are taken. While we all feel strongly about making the kids happy, there are some that believe that should trump all other considerations. There is a camp, represented by Jolly, our Chief Marketing Officer, that believes that the risk of the animals falling sick and/or passing away shortly after delivery only serves to hurt our brand. There is yet another camp, predictably led by Ollie, our VP of Logistics, that simply believes the live animal logistics are so complex - not to mention expensive - that it jeopardizes our ability to fulfill our commitments on other deliveries. Ollie definitely has a point... almost 55% of the qualifying "nice" list kids placed live animal requests of some type last year. And the requests are for a wide range of animals that require vastly different types of care. Of the ones that asked for live animals last year, 32% wanted a horse or pony. 29% wanted a dog. 16% wanted a snake. 11% wanted a cat. 4% wanted a bird of some type. 2% wanted to keep one of the reindeer. The remaining 6% wanted some other type of animal ranging from goldfish to crocidiles.

Of course, even in the years when we decide to tackle the challenge of delivering live animals and we clear all of the various governmental hurdles, we still require written parental consent. And we have always denied requests for animals that posed a risk such as poisonous snakes or large predatory animals. In short, even in the best case years, it remains very unlikely a child will receive a live animal.

After almost two hours of debate this year, I finally had to weigh in with a decision. Clearly we weren't going to reach a consensus. We are going to allow live animals where it is legal and where we have written parental consent. Given those considerations, Sprite, head of Procurement, believes we'll deliver approximately 25,000 small animals and 5,000 large animals worldwide this year. It's a small number as far as a percentage but we are extremely limited by the sheer number of parents that refuse to grant permission. Ollie will provide an updated logistics plan for delivery of these animals early next week.

Billy

Apparently Media Day was a huge success. Kudos to Jingle & Jolly! I mention this because I started the day reviewing some of the key indicator reports.... the Belief report is trending up; "Nice" ratings are up an additional 5 pts over "Naughty", and our media "buzz" rating has remained level after the initial Media Day bump. I also mention this because I get the sense that by the way I'm portrayed in popular culture, the average person would assume that I live a fairly glamorous life. Don't get me wrong... I definitely realize I live a blessed life. Just not glamorous. Take today for example.... it was the typical whirlwind of operational meetings at the North Pole, conference calls from the sleigh, and a tremendous number of mall appearances. Shortly after 2pm US Central Standard Time, I arrived in Minneapolis for a mall appearance. As is normal, there were kids that refused to talk to me, others that threw temper tantrums, some that were terrified of the fat man with the big white beard, a few that would not sit still for the picture, and some that just would not stop talking. I love them all. But even for Santa it can be trying. Fortunately there were no kids having issues with their potty training today.... but it does happen. I cringe every time I see those 2 year olds. And that's why I keep a couple of spare changes of clothes in the sleigh. If you ever see me in the mall and I have one outfit on and a little while later you come back by and I have a different outfit on... that's why. There's been an "accident" of some type.

Today was fairly easy by normal standards, except for Billy. First of all, the elf assisting me informed me that Billy was actually on the naughty list. For legal reasons related to consumer confidentiality, I can not share with you why he is on the naughty list... only that he is there. I always dread the naughty list kids because I can't make them any promises. I can only lecture them on being good to their parents, teachers, siblings, etc. They don't usually leave very happy. Well, Billy didn't seem to happy to be seeing me either. It was obvious to me that he was not feeling well. His nose was running and his face was flushed. I have no idea why parents bring their kids out when they are sick! But he had enough energy to be clear about what he wanted - an in his words, deserved - for Christmas. It was a tremendously long list. About half-way through the list, while I was still trying to decide how to inform him that he was currently slated for a lump of coal, he got sick. Very sick. Stomach flu kind of sick. I'm not going to go into any further details here as I don't think its appropriate - and Mrs. Claus is getting a little grossed out as she reads it over my shoulder - but needless to say, I cut my appearance short so that I could shower & change clothes before my next stop in Duluth.

I did stop back by Billy's house on the way back to the North Pole. I wanted to check on him. I also thought it might be a chance to ensure he is aware that he really needs to change some of his behaviors. I'm happy to report that he was already feeling better. I'm not sure yet if he's going to be able to turn it around and get off the naughty list, but, I'm encouraged by his attitude tonight.

It's not glamorous. But it is truly blessed. And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Christmas Decorations

My day started at 4:00am again today. I had a little more leisurely breakfast this morning. I was able to fire up my tablet pc and get a quick overview of the day while enjoying a bowl of oatmeal. Over the off-season, the IT department set me up with a tablet pc & wireless networking here at the house. I have already found it makes me much more productive. But maybe more important, they set up a dashboard for me that I automatically default to when I turn on the PC. On the dasboard, I can quickly scan the day's schedule, current readiness status of each operational area, graphs breaking down the most recent belief reports, graphs representing the naughty & nice reports by region, breaking news headlines, and a high-level summary of my email inbox. It's all right there and I can quickly drill down on more details if I need it. Sometimes I wonder how we ever did this before computers!

After breakfast, I met with the North Pole Decorating Commitee to review final plans. We are breaking another long-standing tradition this year by moving the decorating period from the first Sunday after Thanksgiving to December 1st. Beginning early on November 30th, the Decorating Committe and a host of volunteers will launch an all-out effort to completely transform the North Pole into a Christmas wonderland by the stroke of midnight. At 12:01am December 1st, the North Pole will be fully & officially decorated. We ended up meeting for just under an hour as we laid out the plan for the 30th, including a review of the resource assignments, and we reviewed all of the power requirements to confirm we have the "horsepower" for this year's display. Three years ago, we blew out the entire grid and set off a rolling blackout that covered all of Northern Europe and Northern Asia. I recieved some pretty nasty letters about that. Our marketing department was not too thrilled about it, either. Needless to say, we won't let that happen again.

After the meeting, it was back into the sleigh and off to another whirlwind mall appearance tour. I kept busy on the flight... answering emails on my blackberry, teleconferencing in with the staff meeting back at HQ, and placing a couple of calls to heads of state to lobby for any range of items from better flight routes to relaxed live animal export/import laws. Somewhere in teh middle of it all, Mrs. Claus text messaged me. The message was simple but it struck fear in my heart... "Mom is visiting later this month". I love my mother-in-law but things do get a little stressful when she's around. Smack-dab in the middle of the Christmas Eve preparations is not the best time. I texted back, "Great! Love to see her!". How do you think we stayed happily married so long?

Once I was back at the North Pole, I was able to have dinner with Mrs. Claus. She explained that her mother was coming up a few days early. She does come up every Christmas Eve so that she (and many other family members) can spend Christmas Day with us here at the North Pole. It was unclear to both of us as to exactly why she was coming up early but it doesn't seem to be a crisis.

Well... I need to get back to HQ. We have a staff meeting tonight at 10p and I'd like to have a few minutes to catch up on email prior to the meeting. Have a good night!

FORBES CONFIRMS SANTA IS REAL

Press Release
For Immediate Release

FORBES.COM CONFIRMS SANTA CLAUS IS REAL

Forbes.com has removed Santa Claus from its Fictional 15 Richest List, citing overwhelming evidence that he is real. Read about it here.

Special Thanks To BunnyGirl For Contributing This Information!
Please Direct All Media Inquiries To Melody In Public Relations

Christmas Eve Preparations Are Underway!

Despite only having a couple hours of sleep after yesterday's global media blitz, I could feel a surge of energy as I bounced out of bed this morning. There was not mistaking it... I was experiencing the Day One Adrenaline Rush. The Christmas Eve Preparations are officially operating at full capacity!

It didn't take long for me to get out of the house.... just long enough to shower and grab a cup of Christmas Blend. Jingle had a full packet reporting on yesterday's media blitz waiting for me at the door. I skimmed through it as I hustled over to the Production Center... stopping only briefly for an Egg Nog Latte. The report was impressive... he had included Nielsen ratings, TiVO ratings, summary reports on positive/negative reporting ratios by category (press, TV, radio), copies of the articles from the major newspapers, and the results of our early polling. He also included a hand-written post-it note that informed me we'll have updated Belief reports in a couple of days. Overall, the media blitz seemed to be effective.

Once at the Production Center (aka the workshop), I found the place already humming along at full-speed. They had started up only an hour earlier but it looked like they had been at this for years. Candy, North Pole Chief Operations Officer, and Bo, the head of Production, met me at the door. They did inform me that despite the appearance of smooth running operation, overall productivity was off last year's first day performance by 5%. But they also assured me that this was better than expected given the new facilities, new equipment, and new processes introduced with the re-building of the workshop. Before leaving the workshop, I addressed the crew... thanking them for their dedication and reminding them of the impact they will have on children all across the world.

Then it was off to the sleigh. The first Saturday after Thanksgiving is a light media day but heavy on parades, mall appearances, and tree lightings. Before we returned to the North Pole, I had participated in 12 parades, 32 mall appearances, and 11 tree lightings on 3 continents.

I hustled back over to the house just in time to enjoy dinner with Mrs. Claus. After dinner, I put on my jacket and headed toward the workshop. As I strolled through the village, on my way to the workshop, I could feel the rise in the energy level from just the day before. By now, many people would be home enjoying their meal or getting their kids to bed... but tonight, as it will be every night between now and Christmas Eve, elves and reindeer were scurrying about carrrying out their assignments. From this day forward, we are in 24x7 operational mode. We run three eight hour shifts but the reality is that most everyone puts in 12 to 16 hour days right up through Christmas Eve. There is a certain, unexplainable energy that not only keeps you from getting fatigued but actually drives you. I never feel more alive than I do during the Christmas Countdown, other than maybe on Christmas Eve itself when the sleigh rises above the North Pole and the magical journey begins.

Finally, I finished the day with our staff meeting. We met at 10:00pm for a scheduled 30 minutes... we ended up going an hour as each area prvided a brief update. Everyone was there... Jingle (Chief of Staff), Melody (Internal Communications, Public Relations, Legal and Community Affairs), Jangle (Chief Financial Officer), Snowflake (Chief Information Officer), Jolly (Chief Marketing Officer), and Candy (Chief Operations Officer). Candy's team is a part of the senior staff meetings. Her team includes Bo (Production), Sprite (Procurement), Star (Advanced RD&D), Ollie (Logistics), North (HR plus Elf & Reindeer Affairs) and Bob (Flight Operations). All areas reported normal operations with no major issues. Bo even reported that Production performance had already closed the gap on last year's performance. I went back home confident that this will be another great Christmas season. I will sleep well tonight!

Media Day

The Friday after Thanksgiving is usually our first day of ramp-up but this year Jingle, Jolly (our Chief Marketing Officer), and I decided to switch things up a little. The Belief reports have been steadily trending down on a year over year basis. Fewer and fewer people believe in Santa and/or the spirit of Christmas that I try so hard to demonstrate. As a result, Jingle & Jolly convinced me that we needed a focused media blitz to drive up the Belief numbers.

My day started with the alarm clock screaming at me at 4:00am. I actually had been awake for almost half an hour before. I couldn't sleep with anticipation of the Christmas season truly getting underway but I didn't want to get up. I wanted to lay in the warm, comfortable bed and enjoy a few moments of peace, quiet, and laziness before the chaos set in. After I got up & out of the shower, I downed a quick cup of coffee and a piece of left-over pumpkin pie at the kitchen counter. Before I could start a second piece of pie, Jingle was rushing through the door way and yelling at me - ok, he wasn't yelling but at 4:30a it seemed like yelling - that we were going to be late. We rushed out and maintained a near-run pace across the town square and to the the Flight Operations center. Within 10 minutes of arrival at Flight Ops, we were airborne and on our way to Asia.

My morning in Asia consisted of appearances on morning talk shows in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, BangKok, Mumbai, Bangalore, & Chennai... with a quick trip down to Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, & Christchurch between Seoul & Singapore. We had four major Asian magazines travel with us in the sleigh for an inside look as we flew around the region. In each city, we hit at least two major national network morning shows. A couple of the stops included parade appearances. Beijing included a press conference at one of the 2008 Olympic venues. I get the same questions every year so its not terribly demanding intellectually... and let's be candid, I'm Santa Claus, so I get some real softball questions. But it can be tiring.

Then it was off to Europe, the Middle East, & Africa. We hit at least 2 national morning talk shows in every major market across the region... 50 markets in all and 114 different talk shows. Again, we had European newspaper & magazine reporters & columnists join us in the sleigh for the city-hopping tour of the region. In London, I hosted a media brunch that gave out almost 2,000 credentials for European press. And of course, after the brunch, it was time to make the same circuit through out North & South America for the morning talk shows there. In the US, we also held media brunches in New York and L.A.

But the big idea - really big idea - to boost the belief numbers was Jolly's idea. "It's simple. If people don't believe, let's show 'em", he argued. So he issued invitations to the top news network, top magazine, top newspaper, and top blogger from the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, China, & South Korea to come to the North Pole. Cameras were welcome. Mrs. Claus served as the hostess... though Jolly was never far way. After a spectacular lunch, prepared by Mrs. Claus herself, Mrs. Claus took them on a 3 hour tour of the North Pole. They covered everything on the tour from the Claus' personal residence to the newly re-built North Pole Production facility. They had full access to everyone. Of course, Rudolph was the most popular interview but Donder's dry sense of humor stole the show. I arrived back just in time - as planned so carefully by Jingle & Jolly - for the press to complete their insider tour and interviews. I met with them over a cup of coffee & ginger bread cookies for 30 minutes. Surprisingly, the didn't ask a lot of questions... mostly they just wanted to make sure I knew what they wanted for Christmas. A sure sign that we'd at least won them over!

But the day wasn't over. In fact, before the press made their way back to Flight Ops, I was already back in the sleigh and off to repeat the Asia-Europe-North America city hopping tour for live appearances on the late night talk shows. By the time I got back to the North Pole, it was well past my bedtime. I'm hoarse from a full day of talking. But I must say that as tired as I am, I feel like it was a successful day. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to talking to wide-eyed & full-of-faith kids at the mall tomorrow rather than cynical, been-there-done-that reports & columnists. Off to sleep....

Thanksgiving Re-Cap

Let the Holidays begin! What a great start to the Christmas season.

I started my day before the sun came up with a walk. Every Thanksgiving I take the opportunity to get out by myself for a few minutes and give thanks for my incredibly blessed life. My walk eventually took me down to the stables where I was surprised to see Blitzen awake and standing outside. He couldn't sleep... the anticipation of the upcoming Christmas season was just too much to let his brain rest. Blitzen joined me for the walk back to the town square. We arrived just as the Starbucks was opening. We sat and enjoyed the first cup of 2006 Christmas Blend coffee. And a second cup. And a third cup. And a fourth... but I made that to go as I had to get back for my tradition Thanksgiving Day pancake breakfast with Mrs. Claus.

The real excitement started after breakfast. It was time to start the parade circuit... beginning of course with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Comet and Rudolph did the honors of flying me around today. Comet brought Haley along for the ride so she could see her first Christmas parade. It was refreshment to the soul to see her watch the parade with wide eyes and an ear-to-ear grin... and to remember that feeling of seeing your first parade.

We zipped back as soon as the last parade completed to catch the football games. My plan was to watch all three but it was almost halftime of the Detroit game before I got back. Nevertheless, Jingle, Peter, North, Blitzen, Comet, and a few friends from the US that are visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday settled in to my downstairs den to watch the game on the big screen. Mrs. Claus had arranged for snacks and drinks. We all had our own recliners and a big roaring fire. They all stayed through the Dallas game but they skipped the third game and took off afterwards to get ready for the Thanksgiving Day Banquet. It was a small miracle that I stayed awake through the Detroit and Dallas games... but I was asleep in the recliner through the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the third game.

The Thanksgiving Day Banquet might have been the best ever. It was great to re-connect with everyone after the long off-season. Many of the North Pole residents had returned earlier this week but we've all been so busy getting settled back in, prepping for the Thanksgiving Day banquet itself, and ensuring we are at a high-state of readiness for the upcoming season that this really was our first chance to just sit & talk. And Mrs. Claus seems to find a way to out-do herself every year. Just when you think the turkey, gravy, stuffing, ham, corn, biscuits, bread, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, etc. can't get any better.... it does. We may have to add the two new reindeer to the team this year to make up for my feasting.

Just talking about it makes me hungry again. I'm not sure how... it just does. So I'm going to sign off for now and go track down a big plate of leftovers. Happy Thanksgiving & Good Night To All. - Love, Santa

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Thanksgiving Eve

Wow. I always forget how much effort goes into preparing for the big Thanksgiving Day feast. Mrs. Claus spends the entire day in the kitchen. Like every other year, I offer to help and she refuses. She wants to personally prepare each and every one of the meals. Keep in mind we are hosting several hundred elves and hundred reindeer. That's a lot of stuffing! Of course, there's turkey. Lots of turkey. Blitzen is currently down in Kentucky with a small team of reindeer picking up fresh turkeys. Mrs. Claus will be up all night cooking 'em.

Today was also the first official staff meeting of the new Holiday season. We started early... 6am... so that we could have most of the day to help with various Thanksgiving Day preparations. Jingle, the North Pole Chief of Staff, ran the meeting. The meetings are attended by my senior staff that includes Jingle, Melody (Internal Communications, Public Relations, Legal and Community Affairs), Jangle (Chief Financial Officer), Snowflake (Chief Information Officer), Jolly (Chief Marketing Officer), and Candy (Chief Operations Officer). Candy's team is a part of the senior staff meetings. Her team includes Bo (Production), Sprite (Procurement), Star (Advanced RD&D), Ollie (Logistics), North (HR plus Elf & Reindeer Affairs) and Bob (Flight Operations). It was a light agenda. We spent the first 30 minutes catching up on everyone's off-season activities. Sprite had a baby girl over the summer and the baby pictures were the big hit. Once we got down to business, we focused on most of the meeting on our state of readiness. With the new season scheduled to ramp up on Saturday, each senior staff member report detailed status on their respective areas. I am happy to report that all areas are "go".

Well... I'm going to go offer Mrs. Claus some help in the kitchen before it gets too late. Good night.

Return To The North Pole

The North Pole has really begun to shake off its autumn siesta yesterday & today as elves, reindeer, and other support personnel return from their vacations. There has been a steady flow of flights in and out of the Flight Operations Center for the past 48 hours. The town square is alive again with reindeer & elves rushing to & fro and the outdoor vendors setting up shop to sell hot chocolate, roasted chestnuts, spiced wine, and more. Some of the other shops that had closed for the summer & fall opened for the first time this morning. In fact, I was the first one in line at 5am for the seasonal re-opening of our local Starbucks. Venti non-fat almond latte. And a pound of Christmas blend (of course, I won't drink it until Thanksgiving Day... just like I won't drink an egg nog latte until then... its a Claus family tradition to only drink Starbucks Christmas blend between Thanksgiving & New Years Day).

Of course, we do maintain a small operational crew here at the North Pole year-round. While the full operation doesn't ramp up to speed until the Saturday after Thanksgiving - which is a day later that we have traditionally started... but more on that later - preparations for Christmas Eve 2006 have been underway for months. The "off-season crew" here has been watching the naughty-nice list, tracking consumer trends, interviewing toy company executives, and polling eligible (i.e. "nice") children on possible toy choices. They have taken that information and refined demand plans, placed raw materials & tooling orders, and lined up contracts with key toy manufacturers. In fact, raw materials & some pre-builds on the high demand toys began arriving as early as October. In short, we appear to be ready to go on Saturday.

Well, I'm off to meet Mrs. Claus for dinner and then I'm going to try to get to bed early as I have the first seasonal staff meeting tomorrow morning.

Off-Season Update

It was a busy off-season, even if you couldn't tell it from my little blogging hiatus. Here a few things you might be interested in since my last blog in March....

• Haley, Comet & Twinkle's new baby, is growing like a weed. She is definitely the North Pole's sweetheart... there is no one that she doesn't have wrapped her finger... er, hoof. She's already showing her potential too... she's already flying.
• Mrs. Claus & I attended the World Cup in Germany. Let me just say this... Zidane is getting coal in his stocking this year. And if Blitzen has his way, a good stiff headbutt... with antlers.
• Elmer, our Chief Information Officer, resigned. He took a similar role with a Fortune 100 company based out of London back in August. After conducting an extensive external search, I determined we had more qualified candidates internally. I have named his top assistant - Snowflake - as his replacement. Her first official day in the job begins on Thanksgiving.
• Reindeer try-outs for the Christmas Eve #1 team continued. (See 12/15/2005 post) We have selected the top 10 candidates that will move on to the next phase. These final 10 will compete for 2 spots that open with the 2008 Christmas season. I'll have more on this later but it should be noted that 4 of the 10 finalists are female. We may finally add some diversity to the reindeer team which has typically been a male-dominated field.
• The North Pole Production Facility, damaged by fire last year, was eventually demolished and re-built as a state-of-the-art Toy Production factory with two times the original capacity. We expect it will serve without further expansion for at least 10 more years.
• I turned down an offer to appear on "Dancing With The Stars". It was tempting as I could create some visibility for our charities. In fact, I wanted to do it but Mrs. Claus & Jingle both convinced me it might be a little too embarrasing... for everyone involved. Admittedly, they're probably right. Oh well... congrats Emmitt!

There's a lot more but that's all I have time for now. It was a fun off-season but I'm glad to be back and to share this Christmas season with you.

I'm Baaaaack....

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I am sorry that I did not do a better job of keeping up with my blog during the off-season. After spring break, Mrs. Claus and I decided that we could do more good out in the field than we could shuttling back and forth from the North Pole. We have always felt our calling was to help the children of the world and the thoughts of the millions of children living in refugee camps just seemed to be compelling us to go. Truth be told... it has been a number of years since we really and truly broke out of our sheltered world. Like everyone else, we need the occasional grounding in reality to appreciate the blessings that have been bestowed upon us and to be reminded that unto much has been given, much is required. This Thanksgiving will be all the more special in our hearts as a result of what we experienced this year.

Anyway, I already have a lot to share with you after this long break but its time for dinner. I'm excited to give you an inside look on the 2006 Christmas Eve preparations. So check back in regularly and spread the word!

Looking forward to sharing this Holiday season with you.

Love,
Santa

Log Your Santa Sighting This Holiday Season

This entire Christmas season you can share a log of your Santa Claus sightings and help us all keep track of where Santa is showing up. It's a chance to provide an inside look at Santa's 2006 Holiday Season from your first-hand account. Use the link on the right side of this page and enter your sightings in the comments.

SANTA BLOG TO RESUME SUNDAY NIGHT

Press Release
For Immediate Release

SANTA BLOG TO RESUME WEEK OF THANKSGIVING

Santa Claus, CEO of North Pole, Inc., announced today that the Claus Chronicles Blog will resume the week of Thanksgiving. The blog is hosted on Blogger.com at clauschronicles.blogspot.com.

North Pole, Inc. introduced the blog just before Thanksgiving last year after receiving an overwhelming number of requests from children around the world. Santa continued updates through March due to popular demand despite the original plans to only carry it through New Years. He had to unexpectedly drop the updates from his schedule due to his work in the field with refugee children.

"I am excited to resume the blog as I return to the North Pole. I regret that I will have to suspend my direct field work with the nine million refugee children but I look forward to re-connecting with all the other children of the world soon", said Santa from his post in northern Africa. "Anyone interested in how they can help the refugee children this Christmas season can check out www.ninemillion.org."

Check the site the week of Thanksgiving for updates.

Please Direct All Media Inquiries To Melody In Public Relations