North Pole Report by Mrs. Jessica Claus
Good morning! 705BLACKFLY.COM, I was so very surprised when the head elf at Santa’s post office, Tweedle, express delivered your letter to me yesterday. I love hearing from the media and am excited to give you an update on what has been happening at the North Pole.
The last time I spoke with you was in Huntsville, Ontario when you interviewed Santa and I while we were visiting with children and their families near the Huntsville City Hall. It was a lot of fun to meet you and I loved how the interview turned out! Now, to update you on the happenings since we talked back in December 2022.
January is a relaxing month for everyone. We spend December 26th until January 2nd sleeping lol! It has been a tradition for the village to have a great party the night of Christmas Eve and as each department finishes their tasks, they join me in the grand hall for dancing and food to celebrate completing another successful Christmas Eve run. Santa joins us in the wee morning hours after he finishes delivering presents and then we have a big breakfast with all the elves to say thank you for their hard work. And as the rest of the world is excitedly opening their Christmas morning gifts, we all head to bed! The village usually sleeps for 24 hours and once everyone is back up and going the elves head out for their yearly vacation. There are always elves here to handle the post office and to assist Santa and I, but each elf family takes a 4-day holiday and are back at the North Pole and ready to work by the end of the month.
In the first week of February, each department meets with Santa to discuss how last Christmas went; what went well, how we can improve and the latest toys that children are already asking for! Meanwhile, we are also getting the village decorated for Valentine’s Day – we love celebrating other holidays! If you were to visit us around Valentine’s Day, the village would be pink and red and covered in hearts lol. We exchange Valentine’s Day cards and there is a competition for the most decorated elf house.
March rolls in quickly and while the rest of the world starts to think about spring, we start production for the year. The stream of letters to our North Pole post office never stops, so we have a list of toys that we can start working on. It’s never too early to start getting ready for Christmas!
I will let you in on a little secret about Santa: he is always checking his lists, but he doesn’t really worry about kids being bad this early in the season because he says children are children and they have good and bad days just like everyone else. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that in the North Pole it is night 24 hours a day from December 25th to March 1st. March is an exciting month for us because daylight returns – and we get to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day! I love going green with the decorations and they look so beautiful with the bright sunshine and pure white snow.
By the end of March, all of the departments are running at full production, but the reindeer head out to enjoy March Break. They visit their families and take a much-needed rest. However, one is always on-call in case we need a hand – or paw – to move answered letters to the children from the post office to the storage department where we keep every child’s file. They also help move toys from the toy making department to the large hangers where the completed toys are stored until December.
The next holiday is Easter, and it usually happens in April which is my month to visit my family with Santa. We travel to Canada to visit everyone for about two weeks – but rest assured that the head elves are in constant contact while we travel! We sometimes get spotted by children and they recognize us even without our traditional Christmas outfits, and we enjoy chatting with them and their parents. In fact, this happens a lot to Santa whenever he leaves the village to visit different locations around the world. After all, he’s the world’s biggest celebrity!
May is the month when Santa and I do performance reviews with the elves. We find out how they are liking their current job or if they would prefer a new department. We are always concerned that the elves are happy in their work, so Santa and I have an open-door policy to address any concerns that may pop up. We also have a meeting to update our list of new toys and other items that have come out for the year. I also start planning new cookie recipes and work with my design department to make the packaging for the gingerbread house designs.
Mother’s Day is a special day for me because the elves spoil me silly! This year, I received snowflake bouquets and all kinds of special treats, and took time off to relax, read and just enjoy the day. Even Mrs. Claus needs a day off sometimes!
Finally, it is now June… 6 months until Christmas! Of course, we celebrate Father’s Day – Santa is often called Father Christmas – but can you guess what else we celebrate? The day is called “Leon Day!” Have you heard of it? It happens on June 25th – exactly 6 months before Christmas. The word “Leon” is the backwards spelling of Noel. That is a clue to the day’s activities…. backwards day! Yes, everything in the village is done backwards if it is safe to do so. The elves, Santa and I wear our clothes inside out and reversed. We start the day with supper instead of breakfast, and the elves walk backwards to their work departments. It is quite funny to see but surprisingly very few elves fall down. The reindeer also join in by pushing their carts with their noses or antlers instead of pulling them!
Well, this brings us to the end of my update. There’s one bit of big news to share with 705BLACKFLY.COM – Santa and I are excited to be visiting Dwight Farmer’s Market in Huntsville on July 12th from 10 AM to 2 PM. Hopefully you can stop by for a hug and a visit.
Yours truly,
Muskoka Santa D. Claus & Mrs. Jessica Claus
