Postmaster Santa

Have you ever wondered if Mrs. Claus and I have a Christmas tree up year round ?

Oh no! Just like you, we only have one at Christmas time and today Mrs. Claus and I flew south to get our Christmas tree, in the sleigh, which Mrs. Claus loves but rarely gets to do.

We flew with the birds over miles of lonesome snowy white tundra sparkling like a field of diamonds. We flew over seas of migrating elk and deer. We flew over hungry wolves hopping in the drifts looking for something, anything to eat. We flew over Siberian Pine trees older than me! Well, maybe not older than me but very nearly.

Finally, we flew over a river and through the woods to where a dear old, old, friend of ours lives nestled at the bottom of a small mountain in a forest of Christmas trees.

Our friend Nik invited us to come visit him and choose our tree! So Mrs. Claus and I bundled up our grand daughter Ellery, our dog Artemis, and ourselves into the sleigh with some cocoa (of course) and a sharp saw excited to find the perfect tree; not too TALL and not too wee; not too BUSHY and not too sparse…

The smoke from Nik’s fire met our cold pink noses as we slowly descended over his house… lower and lower until Hedley, Brawley, Hansel and Klondyke’s hooves reunited with the ground.

Nik came bounding out of his house to greet us in the wild storm of snow the reindeer’s hooves and sleigh runners had kicked up! It is impossible to guess how old Nik really is by the way he bounds up and down his mountain, sure footed old goat. You would never know he can barely see anything anymore. We have known Nik soooo long, so unusually long for a human, that recently I have begun to suspect he must be part elf…

We followed a deer path that meandered gently up and up until we had nearly come all the way around to the back side of Nik’s farm. Ellery would be very disappointed if we came all this way only to go home without a tree to decorate. And so we stood, all of us, looking up the high side of the mountain and then down down below us…

Well, this was it. This was our chance. We had to find a tree! And so I left the path with the great determination of a grandfather on a mission. I hiked straight up the steep mountain side fully expecting there to be no way for my boots to grip the slippery slope, but to my great surprise and delight my boots did grip and so I climbed toward a tree that looked wonderful… until I got close enough to see many of its branches were quite brown.

Wandering from one “I see one !” to another led me huffing and puffing quite high up the mountainside. Suddenly thoughts of my delicate, just healing collar bone made me wonder how far up I’d gone… I turned to look back to where the others were standing down below and there was Mrs. Claus not far behind me and there next to Mrs Claus was THE ONE! We had walked right by the perfect tree!

Reaching gingerly from tree to tree we were able to slow the speed with which gravity tried to send us careening down the slippery, snowy mountainside and reach the bottom safe and sound richer by one perfect Christmas Tree!

Et voila! That is how this extraordinary tree (they always look bigger indoors somehow don’t they?) came to be standing in our living room happily overburdened with over a thousand years of pretty shiny baubles and balls, squirrels and snowmen, fish and cupcakes, birds, bees, butterflies, and and and…

Tagged as: Christmas Tree, Mrs Claus, Santa

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Weeeeell, this was my 85th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

I managed to do just fine waving mostly left handed. Some of my favorite balloons were in attendance, Shrek, a big blue Smurf the energizer bunny… Oh! And its always a bit dicey for Spiderman to make the parade route without incident! Congratulations Spiderman!

Most special was being with my family. As you can well imagine Mrs. Claus and I have children and grandchildren scattered to the furthest corners of this globe and it truly is a miracle for us to all sit down together and share a meal these days. We managed just by the hairs of my chinny chin chin to all be together and THAT is what I am truly most grateful for this Thanksgiving.

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, that you had a chance to snuggle on the lap of someone you love and have a nap; I hope you thought about what you are most grateful for, I hope you laughed so hard you thought you might burst!

I am grateful for you. I am grateful for your Christmas spirit and for your belief in Christmas miracles! I am grateful for your loving heart and wish you and your family a most blessed holiday season!

Much Love, Santa

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Another excellent question arrived in the mail this week. Jeremy from Alabama wonders where Dasher and Dancer and the deer from the Christmas songs are?

Weeeeeell, those beloved deer were the great great great… grandparents of Godiva and Splat and the deer we have now. Reindeer only live between 10 and 18 years. So you see, Dasher and Dancer were my deer in the first part of the 20th century. They had babies who grew up and had babies, who grew up and had babies…

You can read about some of the more recent babies. I have written about the 2008-2011 babies in older posts on this very blog!

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In the spirit of answering the questions the curious children of the world write to me wondering (and as Mrs. Claus suggested recently) I will answer a very good question a few of you wonderful friends are wondering!

Question: How is it that Mrs. Claus and I can be nearly 2000 years old and have children and grand children?

Excellent question!

Let’s see… well some of what goes on around here I will admit appears to be magic and that I have done nothing over the years to deny, nor dispel that notion. It is true that Mrs. Claus and I have thus far lived much longer than humans do these days according to the human clock.

However, we must remember that humans have had longer and shorter life spans at different points in history over the thousands of years that people have been living on this Earth AND the secret truth is there is more than one clock!

I’ve written a little bit here about Elves before and how they live for thousands of years remember? Well, the truth about elves is that they are not so much magical creatures as you might imagine. Although magic is all in how you see it yes? So it is up to you what is magical, what is a miracle and what is nature? Sometimes something can be all three! Babies being born for instance but I digress…

Mrs. Claus and I live aligned with a much older “clock” than the one hanging in your kitchen. Elves, and many other timeless folks live by this older sense of “time,” or rhythm of the the Earth. It explains how we can live what appears to be so long by kitchen clock standards; and have children and grandchildren; and be everywhere on Christmas Eve.

Being so deeply connected to nature (everything that lives and breathes and grows outside) is how we are not so cold even here in the sub zero North; how we are not so bothered by year long nights and days and how we can know by thinking about someone who has been naughty and who has been nice…

What else do you wonder?

Your Santa Claus

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Ooooh BOY! Do I have a ferocious case of cabin fever! Between the days getting darker and darker for longer and longer and my inability to do much of anything one handed, I am beside myself with ants in my pants and no where to go frustration!

Its a good thing I am left handed because I can’t lift my right arm at all! So much for having a plan for these final few months before Christmas. The universe seems to have a funny sense of timing and an entirely different plan for me. I must admit I am having a little bit of trouble just going with it…

Mrs. Claus says this might be a good time to answer some of the questions in children’s letters. How does that sound?

Hmmm… what is a good question? Well Izzy in England writes wondering that since I am so old, and the world has changed so much since I was a young boy, what are my most favorite inventions?

Well Izzy, it isn’t very glamorous but my very favorite invention hands down is the indoor bathroom. Most seriously. Having to drop your drawers outdoors when it is anywhere near freezing is NO fun at all!

I am also quite fond of my new Sonic Care toothbrush. Remember to brush your teeth! You never know how long they are going to have to last you!

Oh! And I do love forks also. Spoons and knives have been around since nearly the dawn of time but forks are a wonderful inspiration! And Long Johns! They keep us toasty up here at the subzero top of the world!

OH! What is this? My expertise is needed on a matter in the barn! How wonderful to still be able to help in some way!

Have a wonderful day and much love,

Santa

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It’s off to work I go! FINALLY

A terrible case of cabin fever had absolutely over come me! Once napping became the only thing on my To Do list it lost its magic.

This morning I was up with the chickens and off to work! It looks something like this outside these days.

This picture was taken a ways South of us over many months so you can see how high the sun rises here.

Where most children live the sun spends the day rising up high into the sky, then slides back down until it disappears before dark. Here the sun cannot reach the tree tops in the winter!

Dark or light it was nice to leave the house today and see other people! I love how peaceful the green houses are before anyone is awake. The plants that were seedlings before my accident are so junglish now! Once Beasley and his helpers began to trickle in I took the lovely butternut squash I found ready in the squash patch and headed over to make some marbles, blue ones with white swirls. That about wore me out!

Mrs. Claus is off helping the hats, socks and mittens girls sort and match mittens. They got all mixed up when the knitters moved to their new bigger building. She could be there a while so I decided to come home and make some squash soup to take to them with some of the fresh bread Elsa (bread baking gnome from the Mediterranean) made this morning!

I hope that you have a very wonderful rest of your day!

Much Love,

Santa

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When all through the house not a creature was stirring and no snacks were allowed.

There are strict rules for people who are about to have surgery; even for Santa Claus, no food or drinks (not even a crumb much too small for a mouse) after midnight the night before!

We arrived in Zurich in the dark at 6am a month ago. It’s dark here in the Arctic nearly all of the time now, so I was really hoping for a peek at the sun.

But before I knew it I was drifting off to sleep and in the twinkling of an eye a nurse was shaking me awake! Of course on the clock Mrs. Claus and my youngest daughter waited in the waiting room for me for five or six hours.

The doctors tell us that reconnecting the two pieces of my broken collar bone went very well and I am in amazing shape considering my age and estimated annual cookie consumption.

All this healing has made me very sleepy this whole month… zzz… even with so much to be done only 63 days before Christmas!

Finally yesterday I was able to start using my right arm a little bit. I carefully oiled my work boots, brushed a few deer out in the barn. They love a good currying just like a horse, especially Godiva who gets in the brambles more than your average reindeer!

It doesn’t sound like much but when I was through I was so tired out.

So I am on the mend, optimistic and very humbled. Somehow I thought a flying accident couldn’t happen to me. No one could believe it could happen to me!

Luckily all is well and I will be fit as a fiddle before you hear the prancing and pawing of each little hoof on your roof!

Much Love,

Your Santa Claus

Tagged as: deer, fasting, Santa, surgery, Switzerland, Zurich

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Yesterday an orthopedic doctor flew here with the mailman. Did you know there are flying doctors? When a cowboy gets hurt in Australia ranchers have to call the Royal Flying Doctor! If you were to hurt yourself in the middle of the wilderness (as we are here) flying doctors must be called in.

Dr. Dufleur and his mobile x-ray machine flew to us all the way from Zurich Switzerland! The x-ray of my broken collar bone was a very sad sight to see, but now I know why it hurts so much. It’s broken in two! My first broken bone ever.

The logistics of Santa Claus having surgery were a bit complicated to sort out. Really the Magic Vestibule is the best way for me to get there, we decided. Traveling, even by sleigh just now is much too bumpy and painful.

With every bump the broken bones bang into each other! Ouch! I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to not hurting anymore. The Doctor said a metal plate and a few screws will make me right as rain again in a few days!

To make sure all will be well for me during surgery I had to have all sorts of tests. Before Dr. Dufleur left he showed us a map of his hospital in Zurich and we chose an out of the way doorway through which Mrs. Claus and I can arrive through the vestibule on Monday.

On the bright side, I do love how life has really slowed down for Mrs. Claus and I. We have had some rare quiet time together this past week. She is sewing the loose buttons onto the big red coat right now.

Since I am stuck resting on the couch until my surgery, Mrs Claus rummaged around in our closet and pulled out my big red coat! After a year of sitting there in the closet the box gets very dusty, but nestled safely under layers of tissue paper my coat, hat and pants stay safe and sound!  The wrinkles steamed out of my hat nicely yesterday. I am wearing it right now. I’ve been so chilly since my crash, that I put my hat on straight away to help keep me toasty warm!

Every year we put the coat away cleaned but somehow when Mrs. Claus pulled it out of the box earlier there was a stain…could I have spilled some milk on it eating cookies at your house last Christmas Eve? Ho! Ho! Ho!

After a bit of a soak its fresh as a daisy!

Healing is making me sooooo sleepy…

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: collar bone, flying doctors, hat, x-ray, Zurich. Switzerland

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My Friends,

Sadly, I am pecking this note out with only my left pointer finger. My right clavicle is broken so my right arm hurts! Even Santa makes mistakes sometimes.

Sunday we pulled the freshly tuned up sleigh out of the barn for our trip down south to where the reindeer summer in Northern Canada. I get very anxious for this first flight of the season!  A little too anxious it turns out.

For good lift off the wind has to be coming right at the sleigh. I can’t just fly off rooftops willy nilly. Although there is a certain amount of magic to my particular flying, there are still the realities of physics and aerodynamics that refuse to be ignored.

Okay now we’re cooking! Mrs. Claus is typing for me! So, early Sunday morning we had an effortless take off from the hill behind the carriage house (no trees). We, Hisham head of reindeer and I, flew south to the summer farm to round up the herd. With one thing and another it took the better part of the day. Hisham planned to stay, close up the barn until next season and return by Vestibule later when he was through.

Around 5 o’clock we got the sleigh and deer ready to fly north, did a pre-flight check; everything seemed perfect. The sky was clear, the deer were full of anticipation for the coming Christmas season and even though it’s a pretty steep and crumbly launch we managed to get into position. The wind was light but seemed to be building. I should have waited to make sure it truly was building but the call of the wind got the better of me!

We took off and for a few seconds everything seemed fine… Alas we didn’t have enough air speed to lift over the tree tops. My left runner hooked a dead branch. The sleigh came to a sudden halt but the Santa kept flying! (And quite a bit of gear actually) No seat belts on sleighs.

Luckily, no deer were hurt in the experiencing of this nonsense. When the sleigh lightened up (minus ME) the forward momentum of the deer pulling with all of their magical might was enough to jerk it free. Unfortunately the left sleigh runner broke as did my right clavicle. Fortunately branches broke my fall (for the most part) and nothing worse than bangs and bruises happened.

Did you know your clavicle is the only bone holding your arm onto the rest of you? I didn’t until now.

Hisham found me in the trees, helped me back to the farmhouse, called Dr. Belen and me (Mrs. Claus)) and rounded up our very scattered gear! I ‘m in excellent healing hands.

(And he is becoming quite the couch potato! We will keep you posted on Santa’s progress.

Love,  Mrs. Claus and Santa

Tagged as: aerodynamics, boo boo, clavical, Mrs Claus, Santa, sleigh, tundra

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Dear Children,

Jasmina from the Rif mountains in Chefchaouen, Morrocco emailed me asking what we did for Mrs. Claus’s birthday this year.

We were out of town actually,  at a birthday celebration for a dear old friend of ours, Grandma Maya. Many of her children and grandchildren have lived and worked in our village for hundreds of years!

Her oldest son is Henning (our cookie master). Her youngest daughter is Meredeth who knits extraordinary hats like this!

And slippers like these!

Grandma Maya turned 4800 in August! Mrs. Claus says that by comparison she feels young! It was bittersweet for Mrs. Claus.  She loves Grandma Maya very much and loved celebrating this special birthday with her while at the same time she felt sad to be celebrating her birthday for the first time without our children and grandchildren.

She did love the new waterproof, dirt proof, shockproof camera and slide show picture frame I gave her in our room once Grandma Maya’s festivities were winding down! She is grateful they have finally made a Mrs. Claus proof camera!

Ultimately she decided she’d rather wait until we are home and have all the kids over to celebrate. It just isn’t the same without them.

A couple of weeks later we did just that! All five kids were able to come and stay for a while. Rebekah made her mom a flock of  delicious Cream Puff Swans that we all enjoyed very much!

On that special night Mrs. Claus’ favorite old saying never felt more true “family is forever; a link to our past and a bridge to our future.” Happy 1737th Birthday Mrs. Claus!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: birthday, cookies, cream puff swans, elves, knitting, Morrocco

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This morning after breakfast I wandered out to the barn to tinker on my truck for a while…

It’s blue, my favorite color.  This picture was taken the day I bought it. Yes, that IS a bungee cord holding the hood on. You would NEVER believe how we got it from there to here but that is a whole other story.

It is very quiet around here with most everyone gone on holiday for the month. So there is plenty of time for tinkering. It still may not look like it but I have been working on this beauty for a while!

The brand spankin new carburetor I ordered just came in the mail this week and today I finally got to put it in. Did I install it properly? The only way to tell is to turn the truck on; so I climbed inside, turned the key and voila it purred like a kitten!

But then I smelled something…

It smelled a little like something was cooking, but not something yummy. Quickly I shut off the truck and looked under the hood to see if I had done something wrong. Everything looked right, so what was that smell?

Just as I was about to give up I noticed something sticking out of a hole in the air filter… it seems a mouse, or a squirrel, has stashed so much DOG FOOD in there it’s spilling out on the engine!

Dog food does not smell very good cooking on a greasy old engine block that is for sure!

Mystery solved and I must say dog food in the air filter is much less startling to stumble upon than the snake that was living in a tear in the passenger’s seat when I first bought this truck!

Have a lovely day!

Love,  Santa

Tagged as: carburetor, mail, pick up truck

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Dear Children,

Everywhere I wander around here there is much excited discussion of summer holiday plans. Elves are going to visit family in Ireland, friends as far away as Paraguay, fishing in Greece, camping in Dorset where the Forest Ponies run wild and free…

Elves are embarking upon adventures to every possible destination!

It is so hard to even believe it’s that time of year again already! Even though this July holiday custom is age old somehow I forget each year how shockingly empty it feels when this village goes from every elf bustling about to nothing stirring not even a mouse.  Oh, it’s not so bad really, Mrs. Claus and I do get some very nice visitors.

Saint Francis, Saint Cecilia and Saint Pasquale are coming in a couple of weeks! It is always fun when Pasquale comes! He cooks and cooks and we eat and eat until if we are fat pelicans too full of sardines to fly!

Saint Cecilia plays the most beautiful classical guitar by the fire in the lodge after dinner and the fresh non-Christmas related conversation is so refreshing!

St. Francis loves to spoil the animals with treats of course. And he always brings us something extraordinary! Last year he brought us a large clear garbage bag full of Lady Bugs for our green houses! How he got them here without them freezing is truly a miracle. You know… perhaps he could implore the polar bears to find entertainment other than a nightly rumpus in the compost pile?

I guess there is just nothing to be done for those first few eerily quiet days after everyone leaves? When it is TOO quiet and everything is so still. After a while Mrs. Claus and I get used to it being just us- sleeping as late as we like, doing what we life  and eating what we choose when we choose to!

Harry and Hilary are staying on in the barn. They went on vacation when Mrs. Claus and I went sailing in New Zealand in February. Twyla is heading to Southern Italy even though she went on vacation in July, her sister just had a baby! Henning is off the Anahlena’s in Switzerland and Beasley has left his assistant Snyder in charge of the greenhouses.

Well I suppose that is enough boo hooing for now. I hope you are having a lovely summer doing all of the things that make childhood so grand! Swinging on tire swings, riding bikes, building tree forts, swimming, catching lizards… ahhh summer…

Happy Holiday and Much Love,

Santa

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This year’s calving was the definition of synchronized birthing! So many fawns arrived so fast! Three days ago every last fawn was born in one very long night! Really it is remarkable how the mothers can do that!

Around dinner time Cicely began to have Hola and none of us thought much of it beyond the normal excitement of the first baby of the season.  Minutes later Vivi began to have Mowgli which seemed to cause a chain reaction!

Rocket well on his way into the world before Mowgli’s feet had hit the ground!

We ended up calling on every last person who had blithely volunteered to help before they realized helping means pulling a Santa style all nighter.

By 8 o’clock the next morning Pia, Clara, Ling Ling, Twiggy, Ode, Tinker, Jules, Clover, Nut, Pippy, Brownie, Downy, Yeti and George had blessed this world with their arrivals! Seventeen fawns in all!

The Midnight Sun of course shone nearly as brightly at 9pm as it did at 9am. Growing exhaustion was how we knew the night was ticking away without the usual visual cues of the bright day becoming the dark night and then bright day again.

The mamas are enjoying asparagus Beasley grew in the greenhouse and raspberry, sunflower, spinach salad that Anouk made in enormous barrels. Babies have begun wobbling around the barn! The barn is filled with a cacophony of each baby’s

unique honking little cry each answered by their mama. This call and answer and their sense of smell is how mother and baby can find each other even in a blizzard.

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: baby, fawn

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Any time now the baby deer will be born! This year we are expecting at least 17 babies! Remember all the reindeer mamas tend to give birth at nearly the same time so the herd can stay together in the wilderness.

Last year we had so few fawns that by contrast this year seems extraordinary! It has been many years since there have been so  many baby filled bellies! The barn is off limits while the mamas are delivering most years, so we suddenly have loads of offers from folks willing to help when the time comes!

I will be sure to keep you posted!

Santa

Tagged as: fawns, reindeer

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Reindeer normally come and go from our barns. They are journiers, deer are, but early this morning they began dashing through the  door two, three, even five at a time!

The chickens, who normally scurry around feverishly clucking about absolutely nothing, today will not budge from their nests. There are nervously dancing llamas in one pen, bumper sheep in another and heads up!

Birds are swooping in from all directions. There are THREE owls in the rafters!  The barn is full of animals, the majority of whom I’ve never seen before, which made me wonder exactly what is happening outside?

The thing of it is when I stepped outside everything looked normal. The sky to the South, normal. To the North, nothing unusual.  To the East, nada. But to the West oh the West! There it was, A WALL OF WHITE!  And it was coming right for us!

It’s been snowing furiously for hours now, not the sort of snow storm you can make a snowman in. Blizzards like these swallow people whole! Out the back door it  looks like we’ve gotten 3 feet so far!

At the moment there are 30 or 40 nervously mingling deer milling around and one wayward caribou who got caught up in the excitement of those heading this way I guess.

We do have some snacks and a few beds in the barn just in case… But I dashed like a deer back to the house just in the nick of time! There’s no telling how long this will go on!  Do you think the snow will reach the roof?!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: blizzard, caribou, rein deer

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Mrs. Claus and I arrived at the marina in the Whitsundays without being noticed, as hoped.

We met our captain, Graham, as planned.

We helped pull carts of supplies to the boat just as I imagined.

We boarded the boat and set sail as expected.

The wind however was NOT the balmy 10 knots the weather radio announcer and our captain anticipated.

Mrs. Claus, it turns out, had forgotten her sea legs at home. She got sea sick, very sea sick. Luckily this first part of our journey was only a  short crossing to a little near by island, maybe 3 hours away.

From the moment we left the shelter of the marina the Gemini Galaxsea rose up up up on unimaginably high waves and came crashing down down down with a through drenching! It sure made the boat seem much more like a bath toy than the yacht it had appeared to be safely tied to marina dock.

After what seemed a soaking wet eternity, we arrived safely in a small calm harbor and were grateful to be checking in with the harbor master.

With all of the crazy tossing about, the shower broke, so rinsing the sticky salt water off before dinner was a bit tricky; but finally we were clean, dry and dingying to shore!

This morning the sky is perfect and blue! You would never guess how treacherous last night’s weather was. Captain Graham has gone in search of a hardware store to find parts to fix the shower.

Liz is desperately seeking cream puffs and garlic for something she is cooking up later and Mrs. Claus and I are enjoying some French toast at a little cafe on the water!

But OH the sun! Oh the blessed sun! It is sooooo good to see the sun again!

Today we are meant to sail up the coast some but if the ocean plans to be anything like last night staying a month in this lovely little bay seems just nice!

Yours, Santa

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Tomorrow Mrs. Claus and I set sail on the Gemini Galaxsea for just shy of a month!

Will it get cold at night? Is it winter in Australia dear? Mrs. Claus’s muffled voice just asked me from our closet.  Hmmm… Good questions.

Well, I do know that the north’s winter is the south’s (Australia’s) summer, but you just never know what will happen out at sea; best to pack some jackets just in case! Once upon a time when I was a young man I was a sailor. Oh how I miss the smell of salty wind billowing through sails!

I’m all packed, from my sunglasses down to my white bottomed boat shoes. I’ve been packed and ready to go for  weeks!

Tomorrow morning we will meet our Captain, Graham, and Liz our guide/cook at the Marina in Australia. Weather willing we are set to sail around the Whitsunday islands in the Great Barrier Reef and then make a crossing to New Zealand!

I’m not sure how often we’ll have internet, perhaps when we dock in little towns.

It’s an adventure that’s for sure and we’ll keep you posted!

Much Love,

Santa and Mrs Claus

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Hello Wonderful Friends!

My big red coat is out of the box! I’m buffing my boots and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet in America! It appears we’re feeling the spirit early this year.

The weather turned deeply foggy yesterday. Maybe having to stay cozy indoors has put Mrs. Claus in the holiday mood? I doubt there is anywhere on this Earth where a person is quite so up close and personal with the weather as we are here. All I know is Mrs. Claus unexpectedly came out of the attic yesterday way ahead of schedule with the dusty old coat box. She’s hung up the big red coat to air out and is taking in my red woolen pants. Yes, indeed, I said taking them IN.

Would you like to know a little secret? Actually it’s sort of a myth gone wild. I, Santa Claus, famed for my jolly rotundness, do not and never have actually possessed a belly like a bowl full of jelly. We are not even sure how this story got started to begin with! Since children are sleeping when I visit their homes, the world has just believed this bowl full of jelly business. Long ago when I was a Bishop there were many drawings made of me that attest to my bowl full of jellylessness.

On the other hand, this is not to say that my legendary sweet tooth is fiction; although I am quite certain that Mrs. Claus wishes it were. I don’t have to tell you. You are well aware of all of the cookies you have set out each Christmas Eve and how they’ve always been eaten by morning haven’t they? I do try (Mrs. Claus is laughing as I write this) to limit my sugar intake so that I will stay nice and healthy while I live on and on.

But the truth is my weight and height are both average. After all these years I still stand just over 6 feet tall. Oopsy daisy, I have just done away with another myth for some of you haven’t I? I am not an elf. I have many, many elf friends and coworkers; but I am, like I said before, just your average guy. I suppose not entirely average. Through the grace of Mother Earth’s magic, Mrs. Claus and I are well over 1000 years old. The truth here too is that this is much less due to actual magic than you might think; really we just work with Earth science.

There is quite a bit to it and this blog seems like just the place to record it. Where shall I begin? Well, let’s see… let’s take it one element at a time! That is an excellent way to organize our exploration of Christmas magic! We will begin with the water element in our very next post, as it occurs to me just now that my boots are actually looking the worse for wear this year. I am going to take them out to Holling in the barn. Maybe if I am lucky he can squeeze in fixing them before he gets busy on the sleigh repairs and reindeer harnesses.

His slow season of making shoes for the folks (and dolls) here in our fine frozen hamlet is coming to a screeching halt!  He does the finest work; my boots will be good as new when he gets through with them! And so I am off to the barn!

Sweet Dreams,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: bishop, boot repair, Mrs Claus, myth, Saint Nicholas, secrets, truth

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Dear Children,

Today I am very itchy. We’ll have to see if sitting here writing this note will take my mind off of my itchiness, or if sitting still will make scratching all I can think about!

My left leg has a terrible case of poison ivy right behind the bend in my knee, most uncomfortable. There are some bumps on my face also, on my chin under my beard. I assure you beards and rashes are a most unbearable combination!

Beasley and I went to Perigord Noir France a few day ago to harvest Walnuts for the reindeer. They need lots of walnuts to have strong healthy hooves, brains and bodies! Hopefully there will be enough walnuts left over for Mrs. Claus to make Swiss Walnut Pie! Henning’s fairy cousin Anahlena gave the recipe to Mrs. Claus when Anahlena was visiting from Switzerland fifty years ago or so. Perhaps it’s fairy magic that makes the crust so buttery and oh the sweet creamy nut filling, mmm… very yummy!

There must have been some poison ivy growing in the brush at the edge of the orchard? Oh but even this itching is worth it! There is nothing quite like sitting around the fire with friends and family nibbling on walnuts freshly cracked out of their shells. Our fingers are stained by the time we have spent a week of nights cracking enough nuts for all of the deer! People have been sitting around fires cracking walnut shells in Perigord since they lived in caves almost 20,000 years! It seems like yesterday to me that walnut oil was a precious as gold and walnuts were a form of money in Europe, but I guess that was 900 years ago now.  (Itch, scratch, itch scratch!)

So if walnut trees grow to be 80 or 100 feet tall how do you think Beasley and I get the walnuts down? Fly up with the sleigh? Walk on very tall stilts? No! We use really long sticks! Well we used to use sticks now we have the sort of fancy extending poles house painters use to reach up high. We wear goggles and hats and tap tap tap the branches so the walnuts will fall down onto sheets we spread below the trees. We tie up the sheets with our loot inside (much like my bag of toys on Christmas Eve) and take them home to soak in warm water until the shells soften.

The deer are out in the barn happily munching their walnuts as I click these keys. We finished cracking shells late last night but my poison ivy and brown stained fingers remain souvenirs of our little visit to France.

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: France, Perigord Noir, poison ivy, Swiss Walnut Pie, walnuts

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Children,

It has been many days since my last post. We have been in the barn nearly 24 hours a day with the new baby deer that were born. It all began with Faith arriving three weeks early! Her mama Ailish got very, very sick which is why we think Faith was born too soon. She was very small and her lungs were not quite ready to breathe Arctic air yet. Teeny bodies can have trouble staying warm on their own. Those last few weeks inside their mamas are really important growing time for baby deer. In the wild babies that come early don’t usually survive.

And that is why we named her Faith, we must have Faith that she and her mama will be healthy soon. She is asleep here by the fire. Since her mama is sick we are feeding faith with a large calf feeding bottle here in the house at night. Anouk takes her back out to the barn to be near her mom during the day. Mrs. Claus, Anouk and Belin are doing everything they know how for poor Ailish.

The rest of the babies were a piece of cake! Aurora was born next, her mama is Ruby. Remember when Ruby was born a couple of years ago? Now she is all grown up with a baby of her own!

Then came Klondyke, he was enormous! Poor Lindy! His size made it dicey there for a bit, but nature is a powerful force. We got to breathe a sign of relief for a few minutes and then Sierra was born. She’s a feisty little one! She came into this world with an unusual amount to say.

Nanook arrive just after Sierra only we didn’t know because his mom was outside when she had him. So that was a cold delivery, hence the name Nanook! Hazel arrived next with unusual nearly green eyes! Her mama is Godiva; remember her eyes are sort of caramel color? Which perhaps explains how Hazel’s eyes can be nearly green? We hope they will stay this color as she grows up!

And finally, Merry was born the next day bright and early in the morning, although with the sun out 24 hours a day at this point who can tell day from night! Midnight sun began in April and will not set until August. We must pull the shades for darkness when the clock strikes bedtime. It is 1:50 in the afternoon here. We’ve just had lunch, reindeer included. We spoil the mamas before and after their babies are born. Today they had blackberries, lichen, fish and mushrooms. Deer delicacies one and all!

Hazel is snoring a little bit as she sleeps here on her blanket beside me. It snapped cold this afternoon so I brought her inside with me. And now she is making very charming little snores. We did not have very many babies here in the barn this year. Anouk thinks two or three mamas may have given birth further south and will arrive here in the next few days. It happens like that, some years are big calving years and some are small. That is the way of things I suppose. Faith is making me sleepy. I think I will nap with her until it is time for her next bottle.

Much Love,

Santa Claus

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Today I unexpectedly finished work early! Moments ago I was happily building Matchbox cars ( a GREAT love of mine) when I felt something tickle my leg…

Didn’t think much of it, scratched my leg and went back to putting the tires on a little orange Jeep.

A few moments and three small tires later, there it was again, tickle scurry scurry tickle…

Forgetting everything I popped up like a Jack-in-the Box and ran for home, burst through the kitchen door and dropped my drawers. Did you know we have spiders in the Arctic? I found a small black spider in my left pant leg and safely found him a new home on top of the cupboard.

As you can see I ran out the door with the fully assembled little car. So there I stood in the kitchen, orange car in hand, in my boxer shorts (the ones with enormous red hearts all over them). Luckily I was alone.  As I put my spider free pants back on it was then that I realized how quiet it is in here, too quiet.

Where is everyone?

Minnaloushe, our old black cat, is the only one to be found. He’s sleeping in the chair by the fire, the tip of his tail alive with his dream. It is 4:30 in the afternoon and this house is empty. I am not sure that has ever happened before?

That is all, my whole story for today. Here I sit enjoying a rare quiet moment…

Tagged as: Arctic, Matchbox car, Minnaloushe, Santa, spide

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Dear Children,

Last night the wind blew so hard it blew one of the vent doors right off the top of the tropical green house! Thank goodness we have spares! Still, Beasley and I had to climb up there and replace it, any excuse really to go up to the ceiling on ropes and pulleys!

Year round winter and no market for 1200 miles means we must grow our own food here in the Arctic. Long ago when we moved here we had stored up our harvest and brought the animals from our farm. That was meant to hold us over until the plants in our first green house were ready to be harvested, but soon after the seeds  sprouted the fierce north wind blew the green house to pieces in a terrible storm!

Of course we were deep in the dark of Polar Night (6 months of 24 hour darkness) and the wind was ferocious! When the green house roof did indeed blow off there were plenty of sleepless Elves to rescue what plants could be saved from the cold.

For weeks there were baby banana trees in the bathroom, kale all over the kitchen, blueberries in the bedroom, lettuce in the living room… We needed a design the icy wind would blow over rather than blow down.  Something smooth as a snow drift… An igloo! Yes! Igloos inspired us to build green house domes!

Over the years our domes have evolved into rather elaborate worlds much larger than the one in this drawing. Each one is a different temperature to grow plants from very different parts of the world!

Oh do we have domes! Thank God for the tropical dome and not just for the pine apples, a few years ago a baby alligator climbed into my bag in Florida. Poor creature nearly frozen to death before someone found her! She’s adapted to the tropical dome quite well though and is growing, growing, growing doing her part in the circle of life around here. She’s fondly referred to now as Miss Piggy for all of the fish guts she eats pounds of!

From northern North America to an Asian dome complete with a small rice patty, a forest of bamboo (for silky yarn, floors and paper) pomegranate trees and gogi berry bushes burst through the doors, we have domes!

Actually to have what we need, here in the most inhospitable place on the planet we must design everything to work with the sun, wind, snow and gravity.

Water comes out of a faucet at your house, like magic from electric pumps and city pipes. We don’t have those things her, but we are surrounded by water! Snow, snow and more snow falls on our south facing roof. During the Midnight Sun (6 months of sunshine 24 hours a day) snow melts off of the roofs, into rain collecting gutters that pour it into huge second story, pool like water storage cisterns.

Then water just has to travel downhill to get our kitchens and bathrooms. The water we use to wash dishes and brush our teeth wooshes down the hill to the garden domes!

To keep our homes toasty we built Varaava Takkas (heat storing fireplaces) in each building like we had in Finland. They warm our bathwater, bake our cookies, dry our clothes and cozy our rooms through the warm pipes in the floor. One fire heats the house for a whole day which is wonderful since we must haul wood by sleigh all the way from the Borreal forest.

Crystal batteries hold solar energy we collect during the days of the midnight sun. But most things here don’t need any power, we use clockwork mechanisms for all of our gizmos and gadgets except this computer! It has its own solar charger battery pack.

And that in a nut shell is the way things work around here. Mother nature takes good care of us! You know, if the sky vent hadn’t blown off I may never have known some limes are ready! Mmmm key lime pie tonight!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: bio domes, Santa, solar power, tropical

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Not fudgy brownies of course! Shy endearing house Brownies. We have Hobs in the green houses, Tomtens in the barns and Brownies in the houses; or at least there used to be. Once up on a time in the days of yore wild brown hair and toasty brown skin earned Brownies their name.

Have you ever found something you’d lost in a place you’d looked a million times? Brownies! Over the years people have gotten so busy most think not a creature is stirring not even a mouse, but you can bet your buttons Brownies are stirring in the quiet secret places in your home!

It has been many years since anyone around here had seen hide nor hair of a Brownie, but they prefer it that way. If you leave a bit of a snack out for them they’ll do some mending or washing while visions of sugar plums dance in your head.

Long ago and once in a blue moon, on sleepless nights, if I sat really quietly, a Brownie or two might peek at me from around the leg of a chair. That was years and years ago until last night. I drifted off to sleep, easy peasy but woke barely an hour later with a terrible start, wide wide awake.

My heart was thumping so I couldn’t get back to sleep. With every toss I turned Mrs. Claus would stir, so I tip toed down stairs to the kitchen to read myself back to sleep in the chair by the fire. A few pages into my new dinosaur book I must have dozed off until something brushed my foot and I woke up again!

Out of the corner of my sleepy eye I saw something slip behind a cupboard. My first thought was oh no we have mice again! Then I noticed something laying on the foot stool next to my foot. A hat! A lovely new blue stocking cap!

Usually it is I who leave gifts for the sweetly snoozing! Oh what hat, so soft and so fine! And my favorite color too! A Brownie must have heard me say how cold it’s been and noticed how silly I look wearing my outdoor hat indoors?

I pulled the new hat on as headed upstairs and left a saucer of cream and cider doughnut on the footstool, just in case… They don’t say Brownies “can out do the cat in their love for cream” for nothing!

Remember to leave a little something for the Brownies at your house!

Much Love and Sweet Dreams,

Santa

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MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Nine Dolphins Dancing!

The captain calls it a Dolphin Party when dolphins come play beside boats! There were more than 20 dolphins that found our boat! They were hard to count as they jumped over each other and dove back under the water. Everyone aboard was bustling with excitement! We threw fish to them from a bucket full the captain always brings along for just such an occasion!

ON THE TENTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Ten People Perching…

There is a rustic people perch for bird watching in the Crooked Tree Preserve! Mrs. Claus loooooves to paint birds, so we went bird watching with our good camera.

Scarlet Vermilion Flycatchers glowed as they flittered and fluttered all around us!

For part of the tour we drifted downstream in a canoe where we spotted a rare Bare Throated Tiger Heron on the side of the river protecting its nest!

Three hungry babies peeked their unimaginably long necks out.

The Jabiru bird above is the largest bird in all three of the Americas and I wish you could tell from this photo how absolutely enormous he is!

Wild and screechy Red Lored Parrot!

Pretty bird, pretty bird.

Lord Baltimore Oriole. Oh and there were so many more! Mrs. Claus has a few year’s worth of photos to paint at least!

ON THE ELEVENTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Eleven Horses Hoofing …

You can just barely see the ears of my horse, a big strong Morgan named Esperanza in this photo. Mrs. Claus’ horse was a dainty Arabian named Mocha. To the left is our guide Julianne. In the foyer of the Wet Lizard Cafe yesterday where we had lunch, Mrs. Claus found a brochure for a farm that offers Sunrise Beach Rides. Remember we have only one sunrise and one sunset all year in the Arctic, so sunrises for us are a treat as rare as hen’s teeth!

It was only a short ride from the farm to the beach. Luckily for the horses hooves the roads on this island are either dirt or sand.

When we returned to the Turtleman’s house after our ride the sky and ocean looked serious. The Turtleman came out to meet us in the driveway looking very anxious.

There is a severe storm warning he told us. Everyone must go inland tonight. He walked with us out to the cabana we’d been staying in to help us carry our things to shore. He’d called to reserve a room for us in town at the Cove Estates, a sturdy new hotel.

We were sad to leave the treasure filled cabana that had become our home away from home with its dusty old message bottles that had floated up on shore, pretty glass Portuguese fishing floats and sea shells.

The Turtleman urged us into his jeep where a full basket of food was packed, ah lunch! Wild and wooly weather makes me hungry! Oh to have some cocoa now with this chill in the air! It was a short drive to the hotel that was crammed with folks from the ocean side, people who had only planned to pass through on bikes or boats, and locals whose homes are on the beach. There was a festive spirit in the air as everyone prepared for what lay ahead!

ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Twelve Lizards Leaping!

Eleven Horses Hoofing, Ten People Perching, Nine Dolphins Dancing, Eight Mayans Mashing, Seven Snorkelers Swimming, Six Monkeys Howling,

FIVE FLOATING RINGS!

Four Lobster Tails, Three Juicy Mangoes, Two Turtles Swimming and a Toucan in a Palm Tree!

Quite nice for winging it! Oh Mrs. Claus says to say we were being spontaneous : )

We have enjoyed our time in Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize. The slow pace has been most wonderful.

Much Love,

Your well rested Santa

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MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME… 5 FLOATING RINGS!

Below the jungles of Belize hides a secret world honey combed with caves sacred to the Mayans! They believe the mouths of caves, dripping with Spanish moss are doorways to the underworld where some of their Gods live!

Getting to the cave was a journey all it’s own! We climbed stone staircases that wound down deep into caves. Above us hung hundreds—if not thousands—of bats. My heart beat like a drum pa rum pa pum pum. We meandered around tangles of buttressed roots and vines, the air was rich with the pungent scent of fearsome exotic flowers. (They all look like Venus Fly Traps to me and I worry a little bit that they will take a bite of me as I pass by!)

It was exhilarating to float around in a water filled cave imagining what was swimming beneath us in the dark! Mrs. Claus had the worried look of a woman deeply concerned about snakes and bugs… but we never saw anything scarier than a cave cricket and crickets are good luck!

ON THE SIXTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Six Monkeys Howling!

5 Floating RINGS!

4 Lobster Tails, 3 Juicy Mangoes, 2 Turtles Swimming and a Toucan in a Palm Tree!

Just look at the size of that HEAD! For some reason I love sculptures of enormous heads! They make me wonder if they were carved true to size and the model was a GIANT! This particular ginormous noggin rests among the ruins of the Lamanai Temples deep in the rain forest! Mrs. Claus and I pushed our way through leaves, leaves and more leaves until suddenly mysterious stone buildings rose up out of the cozy blanket of tropical green jungle!

Do you suppose they named it Lamanai which means “submerged crocodile,” after the crocodiles lurking in the marshy lagoon nearby perhaps? You know, people still lived here in the 1600s. A thousand years passes like the blink of an eye to your old Santa Claus!  It was a very long walk to get there and felt like an even longer walk to get back to the jeep, thank goodness Mrs. Claus packs the best snacks in the world!

He looks innocent enough here but I must tell you that the howler monkeys made me nervous. They’re the Jack in the Boxes of the jungle swinging around and shrieking every which way!

ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Seven Snorkelers Swimming!

Mrs. Claus and I went night snorkeling last night at Laughing Bird Caye! In all my many years on Earth I have never seen such things as glowing animals lighting up when you run your hand through the water! Nearly all the creatures of the deep are nocturnal. (They come out at night, like polar bears visit our compost pile in the night!) Oh no! I’ve just dripped honey from my toast all over my mouse!

Oooops, the bread had air holes in it! Did you know honey tastes different around the world? It’s flavor depends upon the sorts of flowers the bees drink nectar from. So far my favorite is honey from the mountains in Luzern Switzerland. Mrs. Claus and I nearly ate an entire loaf of honey oat bread the morning we dipped into our first jar… Mmm…

ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Eight Mayans Mashing!

Now then, would I truly be your Santa Claus if I did not make time to savor the famed Mayan cocoa of Belize!? Of course NOT! Here we are in the land where chocolate was born! Or I suppose was discovered! Where those crazy beans were first mashed up into the delectable concoctions that we know and love to this very day! God bless chocolate! Chocolate has been around since long before even I was born!

You probably will not believe me when I tell you that it was not I who dreamed up this particular adventure but it’s true. It was Mrs. Claus who suggested we find some Mayan chocolate makers today. She wondered how they make healing chocolates with lavender, chilies and mint… Mmm… You will definitely not believe me when I tell you what goes into authentic Mayan hot chocolate! Butternut squash! Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, chile and SQUASH! The squash seemed like a questionable ingredient but it was indeed most definitely good to the last drop! We even got second cups for Take Away!

And that brings your Vacation song up to my now. What adventures still lay ahead of us are yet to be known! Stay tuned for the conclusion of this most unpredictable rendition of The Twelve Days of Vacation!

Much Love,

Santa

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Or as the locals say Weh di Go Aan!

The TWENTY SEVENTH of January arrived and Mrs. Claus and I had yet to even decide where in the world we would go for our February vacation this year! Even then, the inspiration happened quite by accident. Mrs. Claus was Googling how to make Cajun blackened red fish for dinner when she stumbled upon Belize.

The following letter is the travel diary of our adventures so far set to the tune of On The First Day of Christmas!

ON THE FIRST DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME …

A Toucan in a Palm Tree!

We arrived very late in the evening on February the 3rd and fell asleep shortly after checking in at the Turtleman’s House in Ambergris Caye. That it was available to rent was undoubtedly due to a little lingering Christmas magic I am sure! Look at it! A thatched cabana on posts, in the ocean, over looking the barrier reef! It could not be more UNlike the north pole, very delightful!

ON THE SECOND DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Two Turtles Swimming, and a Toucan in a Palm Tree!

Turtles swam beside our boat our first morning in Belize. We went for a deep sea fishing adventure on a charter boat. It may have been wiser to have scheduled a nap for this first day of vacation. Deciding to fly from the North Pole to Belize on airplanes like folks the world over must travel was exhausting! We will be using Vestibule magic to get home for certain! I really had no idea how lucky we are to have flying reindeer and the vestibule. My rather long legs and travel weary body are so very grateful now!

Shortly after meeting other lovely fishing vacationers from Spain and Albuquerque sharing our boat, the gentle rocking of the waves sent me sweetly off to sleep…

Mrs. Claus, on the other hand, caught a four foot long barracuda! A perfectly vicious, but delicious, beast!

That is our captain Antonio holding Mrs. Claus’ heavy slippery fish. It took both of them to reel it in! The shouting and excitement is what woke me up. I am glad I didn’t miss it!

ON THE THIRD DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME…

Three Juicy Mangoes, Two Turtles Swimming

and a Toucan in Palm Tree!

For breakfast this morning Mrs. Claus and I wandered over to the market in San Pedro.

and had fresh squeezed orange juice and tropical fruit kabobs! Belize is known for having the sweetest oranges in the whole world!

It was most entertaining meandering around San Pedro trying on fantastic hats and terrible sunglasses!

In a little shop by the Smokey Mermaid Cafe Mrs. Claus found a pretty scarf for Twyla, who was meant to be here with us if she weren’t home in bed with a stuffy red Rudolph nose.  It was a lovely day of wandering where ever our curiosity led us, especially when it led us to a comfy hammock for me to snooze in on the beach while Mrs. Claus went to get her hair done!

ON THE FOURTH DAY OF VACATION MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME …

Four Lobster Tails! Three Juicy Mangoes, Two Turtles Swimming

and a Toucan in a Palm Tree!

Just what I always wanted! A day where the only thing on our To Do list was deciding where to eat dinner.

Ahhh… vacation! After my nap but before dinner we watched the kite surfers! If I were only 500 years younger!

For dinner we were invited to sit at the chef’s table tonight! Plate after exquisite plate of more types of fish than we ever imagined could be eaten were delivered to our table. Every morsel was so delicious I hurt myself eating so much and had no room for dessert! Have you ever heard of such a thing?! Santa not having dessert!? Unthinkable!

My belly is still gurgling but this catches you up on our adventures as of yet. I promise you the rest of the song soon!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: barracuda, Belize, Coco Beach, foot print cave, Laughing Bird Caye, night snorkeling, Smokey Mermaid, tubing, Turtle Man's House

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Hello Dear Children,

Phew! I need a nap! I’ve just returned from an adventure in the barn. A few days ago something began smelling very bad in there, unusual bad. We are all used to the everyday barn smells of animal feed, dust and the unavoidable poo. This was different.

Until a few days ago I hadn’t even set foot in the barn since my return on Christmas Eve. This year I was so tired I landed in front of my house instead of in front of the barn! Harry and Hillary who manage the deer came and unhitched them from the sleigh here by the front door.

Some years I get more travel weary than others. Maybe I should cut back on the cookies? No…I eat my Brussel sprouts! I LOVE brussel sprouts roasted with butter and salt mmm… The truth of it is, bodies aren’t really meant to travel any faster than our feet can take us. Somewhere between extreme jet lag, altitude and over exertion I get very worn out! All I could think about was the soreness of my muscles melting into my crystal mattress, ah… Mrs. Claus and I sleep on a mattress made of glowing finely crushed crystals. It is one of the ways we rejuvenate after hard work.

Twenty two and one half days have passed since Christmas Eve and something has been brewing in the barn… the smell seemed to come from everywhere and no where. We could not locate it until a few minutes ago. Since 7 am five of us have been searching for the source of the secretive stench with no luck. Mrs. Claus popped in to bring us some lunch. Of course the smell hit her in nose as soon as she came through the door.

“What is the rotting milk for?” Mrs. Santa asked us curiously. Rotting milk? We looked from one to another pondering this new clue. Where in the barn could there be rotting milk? This is not a dairy farm after all. There aren’t even any baby deer nursing anymore. They eat oats and grasses and berries and mosses just like the grown up deer.

Mrs. Claus soon gathered that the spoiled milk smell was not on purpose. She sniffed and walked and sniffed some more. She sniffed her way to the room where the sleigh lay abed in the hay. That just rhymed nicely. The floor in that part of the barn (the carriage house) is actually swept very clean for a barn. All of the harnesses and gear are kept clean in long tall cupboards along the walls. It’s a lovely room actually when it doesn’t smell like rotting milk it smells of rich mink oil and pine beams.

Mrs. Claus peered into the sleigh. She pulled the blankets I had left on the seat out of the sleigh and peered in again. The smell doubled in intensity! There on the floor far beneath my seat lay my spilled travel thermos with the most terrible rotted moldy cocoa we’d ever smelled! Mystery solved. Mrs. Claus isn’t sure the smell will ever come out of the blankets but at least the mystery is solved and the mess is cleaned up. That is what I get for not cleaning up until now!

Okay my fine friends I am very sleepy and must have a nap before the evening chores.  Have a wonderful day!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: hot chocolate, jet lag, sleigh

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Dear Children,

Haben from Kenya, Africa wrote to me asking what I got for Christmas! Excellent question Haben! Here we are so busy until Christmas morning that we open our gifts from each other late in the evening on Christmas night or the day after Christmas, depending upon when we are rested.

Let’s see, this year Mrs. Claus gave me a clever new pipe made by a glass blowing artist of colorful blue glass swirls! It’s shaped like Sherlock Holme’s pipe! In my stocking she gave me a set of teeny weeny screw drivers, (I looooove tools!) a red flashlight, and some very soft warm socks that are so snowy white I only wear when my feet won’t touch the floor. Oh! And of course new boxer shorts.

Every year just like many of you I get new socks and knickers, usually with wonderful things on them like hearts, mistletoe, red wagons, reindeer, Eiffel Towers…. You get the idea.

Zennia (holiday decoration Elf) gave Mrs. Claus and I

the most wonderful fortune cookie ornaments!

Henning gave us wonderful funny cookie cutters of Ninja Bread Men!

Twyla made Mrs. Claus a little blue felted fairy holding a bird’s nest that she squealed and squealed with delight over!

She loved the necklace of the world in her hands that I gave her. thank you Savannah for the suggestion! She had me put it on right away and hasn’t taken it off yet!

I hope that you and your friends and family had a wonderful Christmas with more love, family, fun and feasting than a there are stars in the sky!

Much Love and Merry Christmas,

Santa

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Dear Children,

Thank you soooo MUCH for all of your wonderful suggestions! It is done! Until today, as you know, I had yet to find Mrs. Claus the perfect gift and Christmas is in only 3 days! We have had more than 1000 Christmases, Mrs. Claus and I, so coming up with new ideas is quite a challenge!

Today at a Department store in Pennsylvania, a little girl named Savannah climbed up onto my lap. Hanging from a ribbon around her neck was a charm of Mother Earth! I asked her where she got it and she told me it had just been her birthday! I tracked the necklace down in a little shop called Intentional Treasures! What an enchanting name for a shop!

Its called the Peace on Earth necklace. We don’t need magic to know that Mrs. Claus is going to love how the hands form a heart as they wrap around Mother Earth.

We only give each other a single gift for Christmas so it has to be perfect!

Thank you children for your many wonderful suggestions and thank you Miss Savannah for making your old Santa’s Christmas wish of finding something just right for Mrs. Claus come true!  Now I can rest easy until Christmas Eve.

We are ready to go days ahead of schedule this year! It is so wonderful to be able to nap (of course) and enjoy the holiday with our  family rather than rushing around like busy bees until I fly away on Christmas Eve!  What a blessing!

Cross your fingers that she will like her gift!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: intentional treasures, peace on earth necklace, savannah

Dear Children,

I have received a few letters this week asking why people do some of the funny things we do at Christmas time, like smashing peppermint pigs with hammers and poking cloves into oranges.

Good questions both! Why do we poke cloves into oranges at Christmas time? This has been going on for sooo long I had to think waaay back to remember!

Long ago in Victorian times (in the smelly days before deodorant had been invented) sadly, people rarely took baths! House cleaning didn’t happen until Spring, Spring Cleaning; so homes got a bit smelly in the winter.

People poked cloves into oranges and set them around in bowls to make their homes smell better, and because they are pretty.

And why do people smash Peppermint Pigs after Christmas dinner? This is another Victorian thing, but nothing to do with stinky smells : ) About a hundred years ago people believed pigs were good luck charms. So they would make a small pig out of peppermint candy, smash it with a hammer after dinner and share the pieces of it, in the hopes of a happy, healthy, abundant future!

This is a BIG planet, isn’t it wonderful that it is filled with so many very different people who all celebrate holidays in very different ways!? For me it is what keeps my long, long life so very interesting!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: cloves, oranges, peppermint pigs, Santa

Dear Children,

December is disappearing quickly and I have yet to find just the right gift for Mrs. Claus! Can you imagine!? Santa Claus having gift trouble!? This will just never do. Perhaps if we put our heads together we can find her just the right thing? After all, next to me, children are the next best experts on gifts!

After having so many Christmases it feels like a miracle when the perfect gift inspiration for Mrs. Claus finally arrives. And with an eternity of Christmases still before us, it is wonderful when a gift is something that can be used up; like the year I found her homemade peach bubble bath in Georgia; or the year I brought a belly dancing teacher to stay here for a month to teach her how to belly dance! She had always wanted to learn : )

Best of all, a belly dancing teacher wasn’t just another thing she would have sitting around collecting dust!

We can do this children! Will you put on your thinking cap and brainstorm gift ideas for Mrs. Claus with me?

Hopefully Yours,

Santa Claus

Dear Children,

Zennia and I are so glad to see that children are having fun with the paper chain idea! Lindsey from Tennessee emailed us a photo of how wonderful her gingerbread man paper chain looks hanging by her fireplace!

She wrote to thank us for these ideas because they reminded her mom of making  snowflakes and paper chains when she was little; and it was really nice to see her mom smile again.

Lindsey’s mom has been really worried about making ends meet for a while and wondering how they would be able to have Christmas. Showing Lindsey how to make snowflakes and popcorn garlands reminded her that the true meaning of Christmas is about giving the most precious gift of all to our loved ones, the gift of our time and loving attention.

Thank YOU so much for sending us this photo Lindsey and for telling us about your wonderful experience.

In today’s world we sometimes forget that the true meaning of the holidays is about sharing what time we have with our families and friends.  It’s about remembering to appreciate the love and blessings we already have in our lives and not necessarily about the things that we can give each other.

Remember our best memories, the ones we cherish like treasures and never forget, are usually of wonderful moments spent with wonderful people!

“What are you doing in there?” My father used to ask. “Making memories my mom would answer!”

Whether you bake cookies, poke oranges with cloves, or snuggling by the fire for a story always remember that life is about making wonderful memories with wonderful people!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: garlands, mantle, paper chain, popcorn, snowflakes

Dear Children!

It is positively wild around here today! There are boxes, and baubles, and bustling bodies everywhere! You might imagine that we are decorated for Christmas here year round, but we are not. Did you know that? That just like you we pull our dusty boxes out of the attic the day after Thanksgiving?

An amazing elf named Zennia is delighted to be in charge of decorating for the entire village. She has decorated for us for hundreds of years and still loves Christmas sooooo much that some years she puts up her own tree in August! I have heard Christmas music playing in her cottage in July!

Since it looks the same outdoors here year round, we use our decorations to visually mark the rhythm of the passing seasons. The unofficial rule is that Zennia must wait until the day after Thanksgiving to have all of our fall leaves, and gourds, and pumpkins hauled off to the compost pile.

She waits with bated breath for that moment and is up with the chickens every November 27th transforming the entire village into a Christmas wonderland! This year we feel like we are living inside of a jewelry box, everything sparkles so! Crystals hang from trees, and windows, and ceilings! Enchanting wreaths with tiny villages set inside of them are popping up on doors; twinkling potted Spruce trees we have been growing for years are sprouting up in every building, and you can just feel the excitement in the air! It tingles and smells sweet like peppermint and pine!

Zennia is lucky that holiday excitement brings her many volunteers to make her inspirations a reality. She has big elves on ladders hanging crystals from satiny baby blue ribbons like snowflakes in the sky; medium size elves elves cutting paper snow flakes by the dozen; and little elves pulling sleds full of sparkling silver urns planted with rosemary Christmas trees that Beasley grew for her! This is the year of sparkle!

It is time to put the twinkle lights on the tree with Mrs. Claus. She likes to have about 30 strands of lights on our tree, you could read by the light it gives off!

Happy decorating!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: christmas trees, crystals, decorating, rosemary

Good Evening Children,

Mrs. Claus and I are sitting here by the fire getting my red coat and pants ready for the Macy Day Parade tomorrow! They are very wrinkled from being in storage all year. Each Christmas night after all of the presents are delivered we wash them, because delivering toys is sweaty business by the end of the night. We then wrap them in tissue paper, nestle them inside a big box with some cedar blocks and store them in the back of our closet until now, the night before the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City!

The wrinkles in my hat steamed out quick like a bunny; I’m wearing it as we speak! But the wrinkles in my coat are proving to be very stubborn for Mrs. Claus this year. It actually looks like she may have given up for now and moved on to resewing loose buttons.

Well, I had better take a crack at those coat wrinkles since I have finished polishing my boots and buckles. I very much look forward to seeing many of you children in person tomorrow! Mrs. Claus sends you her love!

Sleep well,

Santa

Tagged as: cedar, Macy's, parade, thanksgiving

Dear Children,

Would you like to have a day named after you? Once upon a time there was a day named after me, well, there still is. It’s December 6th. St. Nicholas Feast Day. Almost no one even knows about it anymore, but it still makes me feel warm and happy all day long.  It is a silly honor that tickles me pink and I love to hear how folks celebrate it.  A little boy named Hayden wrote to tell me that his family celebrates with a big dinner and during dessert they each get to open a new ornament for the tree!

Hayden and his brothers know that if they leave their shoes at the end of their beds there will be a treat in them when they wake up! It’s an old European tradition.

These days we use December 6th as my birthday. You see, in addition to there being no such thing as middle, or last names, when I was born, no one really kept track of birthdays either! That probably sounds horrible to you, doesn’t it?! Birthday cake hadn’t been invented yet though, so we didn’t know what we were missing!

Think of it. First someone had to invent candles; that was the Egyptians some 5000 years ago. And then, someone had to invent cake; that was the Egyptians too. But then, someone had to be inspired to put them all together and that was the Greeks with their moon cakes. You can thank the Greeks for wishing on candles also. It was they who believed that the smoke sent their wishes and prayers to the Gods!

I have a pretty close idea of how old I am. One afternoon, before I had grown too too old, I decided to count how many winters I had seen come and go. Luckily I could remember all the way back to being very very little! I made a notch on a stick for each winter and then kept track. Now, I have an enormous PILE of notched sticks!

We love every reason to celebrate around here! Happy Birthday to everyone born today! Oh! Holling just rushed in from the barn. A wall of dark weather is moving our way. Holling says it looks like the Wizard of Oz outside.  I must go help batton down the hatches as they say!

Much Love,

Santa

Dearest Boys and Girls,

We are up to our eyeballs in veggies around here! Planting by the cycle of the moon has worked sooooo well that we have grown nearly twice as much as we used to!

Beasley was inspired to work with the pull of the moon by planting seeds that sprout above ground veggies on the new moon and the plants that have underground veggies on the full moon.  Wow does it work! It has gotten very difficult for me and my bowl full of jelly belly to walk the garden paths, it is such a jungle of plants!

With so much extra food we have begun making secret midnight deliveries to places where people do not have enough food… which is how my entire Christmas Mission began so many years ago! Times were very difficult when I was a young man. There were many rules forbidding me from helping folks. Imagine such a thing!

In order to give food to those in need I had to sneak from home to home in the dark. I would hide the food in their stockings that hung by the fire to dry. Most places in the world are not like that now, thank goodness. But it is still fun to deliver baskets of apples, enormous watermelons and bags of pecans in the night to surprise folks when they wake up in the morning. Delighting people truly never grows old for me; to know that for a little while people will not be hungry.

It feels very warm and wonderful to be able to make the world a happier place more than one day a year!

Must find my woolly mittens and cozy coat now, for tonight we are going to Norilsk Russia with enormous vats of stew, a sleigh full of bread and baskets of oranges. Imagine most of these folks have probably never ever had an orange before! It should be wonderful!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: full moon, hungry, oranges, planting by the phases of the moon

Children,

Many of you may be wondering as Anna from Washington is, if we drive cars in my village.  One end of this village is not so far from from the other that we might require motor cars.  The ground is perpetually covered in snow here, which may be difficult for car and bicycle tires, but it is perfect for sleigh runners!

Reindeer take shifts helping to haul packages, or a person or two at a time during work hours.  We generally have two of these zipping around the place. The wait is never more than a minute or two to catch a sleigh, much like the golf carts you will see zooming around air ports only with jingle bells instead of horns that beep : )

Please feel free to keep the wonderful questions coming. They very much help me to know what you children are wondering about!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: cars, reindeer, Santa, sleigh, washington

Dear Children,

A funny thing just happened in the Game Workshop… last week when I stopped in for a visit production was moving along nicely, maybe a little ahead of schedule even. Bloomfield (head game elf) was working on a new game while the other game makers worked on the board games you know and love like Candy Land and Apples to Apples.

While I was there, Bloomfield asked a few of the other game makers to try out the new game with him to make sure it works properly. I left them happily handing out game pieces, complimenting Bloomfield on the board design. That was last week….

When I just popped into the game workshop a few minutes ago, those same elves were sitting right where I had left them last week!

Not only that, all of the other game makers had joined in the game! They like it soooo much that they haven’t worked on their games since they started started “testing” the new one last week! We lost a full week of productivity! Of course it was all in the name of “product testing”…

When I walked in Bloomfield snap out of it, stood on a tall stack of Monopoly games and make a formal request that if everyone promises not to play the game during work hours that they could have unlimited play time after Christmas! Everything is back on track now. They had to bend time for a few days to catch back up, but they said the extra challenge is making their work feel like a game!

I hope school s going well for you this year? Are you are liking your teachers? What interesting things have you learned? Did you know, tigers still have stripes even if they go bald? There is so much to learn out there in this great big world of ours, from how it can rain fish in Honduras, to how your own heart works. It’s exciting to think that there is actually more that we DON’T know than we do!

Scientists are still discovering new species of butterflies, bugs and fish all the time. There are still places on this planet that people haven’t traveled to yet and things out in space we have yet to discover! I hope you are feeling curious, enjoying your fresh box of pointy new crayons and making new friends!

That reminds me, a little girl named Sara who has just moved to Kansas from Ohio recently wrote to me asking for some advice with starting at a new school. She has lived in Kansas since she was born and is very nervous about starting a whole new life in Ohio. My advice actually goes out now to all of the children who are NOT starting at a brand new school this year. Please be especially kind to people who are new to your school, town and life. Imagine how sad they may be having just left their homes and friends and family behind. Starting over can feel scary. Your kindness can change someone’s entire life!

I tell you this from personal experience as we had to move to the Arctic from Scandinavia long ago. Whether you feel excited about your move, or scared stiff as frozen mittens, if you see newness and change as an OPPORTUNITY for something better and wonderful to take the place of what you have lost; and look for the gifts your new home brings you, you will have a much happier journey.

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: game, productivity, software

Dear Boys and Girls,

A little boy named Hamish from Scotland wrote to me wondering how the mailman delivers my mail so far north.

Good question. Well, your letters that are taken to the post office are given to a special mailman who flies them to me in a pontoon plane once a week!

The letters that you write to me that do not make it to the post office still reach me in spirit. I make notes about your wishes in a special Christmas Wish journal.

Remember Santa always knows what you are up to : )

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: mail, pontoon plane

Dear Boys and Girls,

It was Mrs. Claus’s birthday yesterday and her birthday wish was that we fly by sleigh to a restaurant high in the mountains! How do you suppose she finds out about these things?

Our waiter told us that customers without flying reindeer drawn sleighs either have very serious 4 wheel drive trucks, or snow shoes! Mrs. Claus loved flying in the sleigh! Under cover of darkness of course. Our annual anniversary sleigh ride is of the traditional variety, gliding over the the snow : )  But this was honest to God flying through the sky and she just loves that!

It is such a rare thing you see. We don’t just fly the sleigh all over the place willy nilly any old day of the year. Flying is saved for Christmas Eve, for the most part. Occasionally there will be a sleigh emergency, a hurt deer in a remote location, or something of that nature; but thankfully that sort of thing has only ever happened once, or twice.

The restaurant was nestled in a forest of enormous Christmas trees! We were able to sit right by the fireplace; it was very cozy and romantic, which made Mrs. Claus very happy. It is rare for us to get away, just the two of us. I’m sure that is why it was her birthday wish.

Our dinner was very delicious. We had strawberries dabbed with Mascarpone cheese that were very yummy!  And the salmon, it was extraordinary! Sitting on a bed of finely chopped spinach, in a cream sauce, with little baby yellow tomatoes, and BLUE potatoes! Have you ever seen blue potatoes? The owner gave Mrs. Claus a basket of baby blue potatoes to to take home and plant in the garden!

Mrs. Claus loved the new satin slippers I found for her in Italy! Her old slippers recently had a very unfortunate accident falling into the bathtub where the dyes bled into mud and they were ruined.  She loved those slippers; she said they made her feel like she is home no matter where she is. However, even with this computer searching the world over for another pair of her beloved purple slippers, there were none to be found.

Just as I was about to give up on slippers and think of something else to get her, up popped a pair of silky green Italian slippers that look as though they were made by fairies! But, would Mrs. Claus like the new green slippers as well as she has loved the purple ones?

She gasped when she saw them and put them on right there in the restaurant! Then she gave me a really big hug to say thank you and told me they make her feel like the Fairy Queen herself! I asked her if she could ever like them as much as she liked the purple ones and she told me that she thinks they are exquisite but that losing the purple slippers had made her realize something really important, that the feeling of home needs to come from inside of you not from slippers, or a house, or any thing. It’s interesting how even something that can seem sad at first can come with an unexpected blessing.

Also before I go, I just want to say how much we appreciate you children noticing us even when it is not the Christmas season and we are not wearing red. It warms my heart to feel a child tugging at my sleeve to let me know something very important like you’ve moved house, or gotten a baby sister. Thank you Jake who visited with us last night and all children everywhere for keeping us in your hearts all year long!

Much Love,

Your Santa Claus

Tagged as: birthday, mountain, restaurant, sleigh ride

Dear children,

I wish you could see the stacks of postcards that have been arriving from our elf friends on holiday all over the world! It is very quiet around here during the month of July as almost every elf is far away resting, exploring, visiting  and rejuvenating!

Our elves are magical creatures, and like all other magical creatures they must return to magical places at least once a year to recharge their magical batteries.  Because there are magical places all over the Earth we have postcards from the Amazon to Zimbabwe!

The young elves from the cookie kitchen are skiing together in New Zealand this week and will meet up with their families later in the mystical Burren Ireland.  Anouk and her family have gone to Greece to recharge at the Oracle of Delphi, but so far her daughter and son love the fishing best : ) They are out in a rowboat from dawn until dusk fishing, fishing, fishing!

Here is a spectacular postcard from Henley (head chef elf) and his wife who went to Stone Henge to rejuvenate!

Quite and extraordinary postcard don’t you think!? Beasley has gone off to see the wonderful Sequoia trees in California that look as though they touch the sky! Our mitten specialist has gone to Victoria Falls Africa, Twyla has gone to the Amazon… Everyone is everywhere! Which makes it strangely quiet here. I think I will go see if Mrs. Claus would like to take a walk. Have a lovely day!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: holiday, magical, postcards

Dear Children!

Our New Year is half over again already! It feels like it happens faster and faster every year, but scientists tell me that the moon is actually slowing down the spinning of the earth little by little! They say it will take hundreds of thousands of years for us to notice any difference, but it makes me feel good to know that time is on my side in spirit!

Time, time, time, that reminds me… I received a letter this week from a little girl wondering how exactly I slow time down on Christmas eve to make all of my deliveries. Well Miss Emilie I use very simple, but very powerful magic that we all have inside of us.

How shall I explain? Tonight when you are laying in bed waiting to fall asleep notice how light, and white, and bright it is in the place that you see when your eyes are closed.  This is a magical place; this place between waking and sleeping. This is the place where the answers to the things you wonder can come to you! Brilliant inspirations for beautiful artwork can fill your mind’s eye, wonderful stories can tell themselves to you, or you imagine really fun new things to play when you wake up!

Mrs. Claus, the elves and I, we bend time in this bright, white, light place  between waking and sleeping where anything is possible! Before we begin on Christmas Eve we hold hands, close our eyes and look up into that bright whiteness as we say a little prayer to have all the time we need to do all that we need to do.

In our minds we see that magic white light filling us up, then filling the room up, then we imagine the white light surrounding the entire Earth expanding out into the Universe forever! And voila! We don’t need to know how it all works out in the end. We just know that it always does!

Your very own bright white sparkles can work all kinds of magic! Like needing courage to stand up in front of the classroom to give a report, dance in a recital, or learn how to ride your bike! Close your eyes, see the white light, imagine it is bravery or whatever you are needing and then imagine that sparkly bravery filling you up! Works like a charm!

Okay my sweet children, It is time for me to go down to the gardens.  It may look like winter here every day, but it feels like Spring inside my heart! And I am looking forward to digging in the dirt with Beasley in the greenhouses today!

Much Love,

Your Santa Claus

Tagged as: bravery, Christmas Eve, universe

Dear Children,

The final 2 new babies have been born! Ghandi arrived a full week after Vertigo! We were wondering if the last two babies might have decided it would be much warmer to just stay inside their mommy’s bellies!

Ghandi Photographed by Dave Barfoot

Ghandi is very light in color, so unusually so, that Anouk, the elf in charge of labor and delivery, was calling her Blondie. Anouk’s little girl Ffiona has great difficulty hearing and thought we were calling her Ghandi! So now she is Ghandi and it is actually a perfect name for her most peaceful demeanor. Ffiona named Duck as well. The first noises Duck made sounded like a… you guessed it, a duck! His noises are very funny and loud enough for Ffiona’s struggling little ears to hear!

So now we are complete. All of our babies have arrived plus one! They are wobbling around in that delightful newborn way that is so endearing, all wobbly long legs with minds of their own. Hope you like the photo!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: Ghandi, reindeer, Vertigo

Dear Children,

The answer to where do snowmen keep their money is…

IN THE SNOW BANK! That is a good one! An elf named Ethan who heard that joke at the same time that I did, chuckled and said that “if the snowman keeps his cold hard cash in a snowbank his assets will be frozen!” Ho! Ho! Ho!

So, the seaweed salad was not popular. It was an excellent nutritious idea, but our reindeer do not think seaweed is yummy. I believe I heard the word rubbery snorted more than once… ho ho ho!

Sometimes the reindeer forget Santa hears everything, even the animals!  They were very nice about it though and told me to complimented Mrs. Claus on how amazing last year’s mama salad was, how fresh and delicious the fiddleheads were, and how juicy the raspberries were… do you think this was a hint for Santa to bring them raspberries? ; ) Mrs. Claus does always say berries are the best medicine!

The mamas were saved from eating seaweed salad by Hansel and Gretel! The first baby reindeer arrived ahead of schedule the night Mrs. Claus returned! She was just in the nick of time, although Hansel and Gretel being twins is why they arrived much earlier than expected.

So far we have 7 babies. A week or so after Hansel and Gretel were born Thor was born, then two days later Elvis; or maybe, Cicely came before Elvis? Then came Vivi and Dewey within hours of each other. Our latest baby is Vertigo. He was born last night and is having a little trouble remembering which way is up : )

Well my children it is feeling like cookie time for me. Usually I swing by the cookie kitchen before I come upstairs for the night, but tonight I forgot. So I must make a trip back downstairs now in my pajamas!

I will be sure to keep you posted on news of our last two babies still to be born! Sweet dreams and much love,

Your Santa Claus,

Tagged as: reindeer baby, riddle, salad

Dear Children,

It has been quite lonely around here for the past week or so. I am missing Mrs. Claus very much while she is away. She smells sweet, like … butterscotch! I miss hearing her voice. I miss her fits of giggles ( Mrs. Claus is really very silly, she loves to laugh! I miss her warm spirit and I miss her gingersnaps!

She made enough to last while she is gone, but the last few are rather old and hard now.  I must dunk them in my evening cocoa or I might break a tooth!

Mrs. Claus, Twyla and Beasley have been off collecting ingredients for a special sort of “salad” they feed the reindeer mamas in the spring for extra vitamins the last couple of weeks before they have their babies. It’s that time of year again! 9 babies are about to be born, 9 that we know of. Sometimes there are surprise bonus babies!

All year Mrs. Claus reads articles and books about nuts, and seeds, and plants to perfect her recipe.  She read about the hundreds of kinds of lichens our reindeer would eat if they lived in the wild Boreal forest!  They went there first to gather lichens.

Did you know the Boreal forest grows in  nearly a perfect ring around the top of the globe!?

Then they went to California! Because her secret ingredient this year is seaweed! They plan to chop up seaweed from a rich kelp forest in Southern California to go with the lichens from the forest. To make the seaweed go down easier they have gone to trade some of our famous North Pole sushi for some goji berries from the Himalayan Mountains!

Beasley had elves picking baby spinach from our greenhouses this morning, for its excellent iron (you know how strong spinach makes Popeye!) and sunflower sprouts to make it the vitaminest and a little more salady.

But will the mamas eat it tomorrow!? This is the question! It is nearly 9 pm here and Mrs. Claus is due back any minute now! I was afraid I might doze off sitting here by the fire waiting for her; so wisely I have chosen to write to you! Help me stay awake for Mrs. Claus children!

While she was gone I learned a joke I think she will like. Where does a snowman keep his money?

OH! She is home! In my next post I will tell you the answer to the riddle! Thank you for keeping me awake! And much love,

Santa

Tagged as: gingersnaps, salad, Santa

One of the elementary school teachers, Miss Lucy, made this Word Search for our little elves to practice their spelling. She thought you children might enjoy it as well and asked me to post it for you!

Her directions for printing it out are to right click with your mouse on the puzzle and save it as an image to your computer. Then print it from what ever image viewing program you use. Enjoy!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: games, puzzle, Santa, word find

Dear Children,

Many of you have written to me asking what my favorite things are.

Jane from Aukland New Zealand is curious what my favorite dessert is? Is it really cookies she wonders. My very favorite dessert in the world is Baked Alaska! But rest assured I cannot make it thru the day without at least a handful of cookies, or two : )

Johannes from Enns, a little town older than me (if that is possible!) dating back to 400 BC, would like to know what my favorite Christmas carol is?  “Welches ist Dein liebling Weinachts lied?” he asks.

Hmmm… It would have to be  “Let It Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.” Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful…!

And Beatrice from Newfoundland has asked what are Mrs. Claus and my favorite toys in the whole factory? I asked Mrs. Claus and she told me to tell you her favorite is definitely Waldorf baby dolls.

And for me my favorite toy of all times are Farm play sets. The more animals, fences and tractors the better!

But I must admit when all the elves have gone for the night I do love to race around the workshop on a scooter!

Twyla just came in to tell me I’m needed in the reindeer barn. So I must go for now, but thank you so much for all of your thoughtful questions!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Christmas carol, farm play sets, favorite things, New Zealand

Dearest Children of the World,

I am your Santa Claus, a Saint blessed with the ability to stay the same age for all eternity if I choose.  I have reindeer that fly and elves for coworkers. On Christmas Eve I am able to step outside the law of Time and deliver presents to children all over the world. Intuitively, I know who of the millions of children on this planet have been naughty, and who have been nice.

The very nature of my life gives me quite a bit of  experience with the magical, the unbelievable and the extraordinary, yes? Well, I would like to share with you some of the wondrous things that I have learned living the mysterious and unusual life that I have for so long.

Wishing is serious business. Imagine for a moment how many wishes a minute children point at me with their hearts and minds? Because of this I have grown to know a thing or two about wishing : ) Perhaps that ancient philosopher had me in mind when he coined the phrase  “thoughts become things.”  Ho! Ho! Ho!

So how do you practice this fine art of Wishing? Firstly, give yourself permission to wish up a storm! Wish for your bad haircut to grow out fast, to get along with your brother better, for a new set of paints, or a trip to the moon! Grown ups may tell you not to wish too much, or too often, thinking it might make you greedy, or disappointed; but take it from an expert, wishing keeps your heart pumping and your soul inspired! And that is what life is all about! Following your joy!

Wishes have been being wished since people lived in caves wishing for babies, rain, and bushes loaded with juicy Spring berries. Of course now a days people more often wish for roller blades, chocolate and IPODS, but it is really all the same.

And here is why… in science class you will soon learn, if you haven’t already, that everything in our world is made of the same thing, energy. Energy just like what lights up your lamps. People are made of energy; butterflies are made of energy, rocks and apples and especially rainbows are made of energy. Everything is energy !

And wishes are energy too! The ancient Greeks understood this and that is why they invented birthday candles! Only then they were called moon candles and were stuck into moon cakes. Every full moon they would bake a moon cake, put little white candles on top, light them, make a Wish and blow them out.

They believed that the candle’s smoke carried their wish up to the Gods.  They didn’t wait for a once a year birthday wish; they made wishes every full moon! My suggestion for you is to bravely wish to your heart’s content every single day. Wish in the morning, wish at bed time, wish on the new moon, wish wish wish!

Draw pictures of your wishes, make a shoe box diorama, or write a notes about whatever you like and put it under your mattress. (Your mattress  works like a mailbox for the angels. Just like the toothfairy goes looking for your teeth under your pillow, angels look for wish notes under your mattress!)

You could wish every minute of every day and never use up your lifetime serving of wishing; you are granted unlimited wishes! There is endless wish power out there in the universe. So get busy figuring out what makes you happy, painting pictures? Caring for animals? Baking? Then get busy loving your wishes, I love you, I love you, I love you!

Most of all, know deep down inside of your soul that anything is possible; you deserve your heart’s desire and you are a powerful wisher.  And always remember that everything is energy, which means that all wishes are equally sacred- from a new tea set you can enjoy with a good friend to your Grandmother getting over her bad cold.

I hope with all my heart that this helps explain Wishing! I apologize for how long it has taken me to get back to it! Once I post a picture of the Vestibule for you I will be all caught up on the things I have promised you!

Happy Wishing and Much Love to you all,

Santa Claus

Dear Children,

Mrs. Claus and I have been married 1716 years! We were married on the Spring Equinox, March 21st in the year 293.  She did not know way back then when we were so young and in love just how long her I DO was going to have to last; did she ?!

This painting is from then, before we were married.  I thought you might find it interesting to see that we have not always been old, Mrs. Claus and I. We have actually remained the same since we were spring chickens in our sixties. A lovely fairy friend of ours from Ireland gave us the gift of agelessness for our anniversary for as long as we choose this path.

We were and are very thrilled to have this painting. Remember there were no cameras back then. So, if you wanted a likeness of someone you love you had to find an artist to paint you one : )

Well Mrs. Claus and I are off for our anniversay sleigh ride picnic! Mrs. Claus loves to ride in the sleigh, but is so busy, somehow it rarely ever seems to happen. So we make sure that for our anniversary we go for a romantic moonlight sleigh ride.

Henning always packs us a delectable surprise picnic! It’s quite an adventure indeed! And I had best not keep Mrs. Claus waiting!

I love you! I love you! I love You! (Are you practicing your I love you’s?)

Santa Claus

Tagged as: anniversary, painting, spring equinox

Dear Children,

What a warm, wonderful welcome we received upon our arrival home! Every elf had something to catch us up on!

The mitten elves were very excited to tell us how they’d been inspired to spin fresh cobwebs into the yarn they use to knit mittens. Cobwebs are very strong and very waterproof you know.

And the List elves were very excited to show us how much paper will be saved by their having computerized the entire Naughty & Nice list while we were gone!

But I promised to tell you about the secrets of the Kahunas!  So much suspense!  At breakfast a few days ago on our last morning in Hawaii we met Aalona the Kahuna. He described the Secrets of the Kahunas to Mrs. Claus and I by telling us a sort of story…

He said to imagine that this planet Earth is a large swimming pool and we the people are all swimming around inside it. Every person in the pool has on goggles. No two pairs of goggles have the same lenses (glass you see through).  We are all in the same pool but our different goggles make the pool look different to each of us.

Your goggles let you see everything you are meant to see, and when you like something you are meant to say I love you in appreciation of it, as a Thank You. And when you do NOT like something you are meant to say I love you to transform it!

Here is the magical part! When you say I love you to the things you don’t like and change its yuckiness to goodness, you change it for the whole swimming pool full of people! Your love is very powerful.

We asked Aalona if it will work for everything and he said it will. Some things just take a little longer than others because they are bigger yuckiness. He said please just keep saying I love You for it. He showed us how to say I love you in sign language and said it works like a magic wand!

So I am including a picture here for you of how to do it : ) The big secret is Love, it makes me feel all warm tingly inside.  I am sending love to YOU right now! Can you feel it? Are you warm and tingly yet?

Practice your I Love You’s!  This secret is not for keeping; its a secret for sharing!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: cobwebs, Earth, I love you, kahuna, naughty and nice list, save paper

Good Morning Children!

Mrs. Claus and I are heading home in a little while.  We are very grateful to have had all of this wonderful resting, but are very much missing everyone at home.

We have been away an entire month! And are very thankful that February only has 28 days this year! Mrs. Claus suggested that she take care of getting us checked out of the Inn so that I could post a message here about who we met at breakfast!

This morning a real live Kahuna was eating raspberry French toast with his grand daughter here at the Inn! Do you remember me mentioning Kahunas from the Garden of the Gods legend? The story of how the two Kahunas kept  bonfires going until every last bit of nature in the Garden of the Gods was burned up?

Well this present day Kahuna told us that the word Kahuna means Keeper of the Secrets.

Are you wondering what kind of secrets ? He said they are very, very, very old secrets, but that it is time to tell them to the world!  His Name is Aalona, it means bringer of the light. Aalona believes our paths crossed over breakfast because I am the perfect person to help tell the secrets to the world and you, the children of the world are the perfect people to hear the secrets!

Oh! Mrs. Claus is back. We must travel home now through the Vestibule. I will attach a lovely photo of the beach here for now and as soon as we are settled in at home I will explain what the secrets are!

Much Love to you all! See you on the other side!

Your, Santa Claus

Tagged as: French toast, kahuna, vestibule

Happy Valentines Day Children!

Can you feel the zingy zing of love in the air today?! People on every continient all over the world celebrate Valentines Day. Mrs. Santa and I can feel such enormous love welling up out of so many people this year! Think of what a powerful force it is to have millions of people feeling so loving all at once all over the world! If you sit really still and quiet you can feel the buzz of energy build as the day ticks by! So much good energy pouring out of so many people makes the world a nicer place!

Ut Oh! They’ve knocked on our door wondering where we are for dinner! Remember children “what our heart gives away is never gone … It is kept in the hearts of others.”  A lovely soul named Robin St. John said that and we couldn’t agree more!

Much Love to you all,

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Tagged as: love, Santa, Valentines Day

Dear Children,

I almost forgot to tell you the most important reason of all that Mrs. Claus and I have enjoyed waking up silly early for the sunrise every morning- the baby whales and mamas are out then! Imagine a 12 foot long, 3000 lb baby! THAT is as big as a car! Imagine a 45 foot long, 90,000 lb mommy! What else is that big? Well… a school bus is 36 feet long.

Thousands of whales swim south more than 3000 miles from Alaska to Hawaii every winter to have their babies in warm safe water. February was a very good month to come to Maui because the entire month is a whale festival!

Today Mrs. Claus and I decided to go on a whale watching boat to get right up close. Our captain told us that to find the whales you just have to look for the flocks of birds that follow them around eating little bits off of their backs when they surface! We saw dolphins and humpback whales today! They came VERY close to the boat, so close that we now know that when a whale blows water out of its blow hole it smells very bad!

It was a very exciting day! And I am all worn out, feeling very sleepy as I type this. Time for a nap.

Take care sweet children,

Santa

Tagged as: Maui, sunrise, Whale Festival, whales

Dear Children,

Mrs. Claus was strolling around in the ocean up to her knees this morning when a lovely girl we’ve met here at the Inn waved to her. As Mrs. Claus turned her back on the ocean to wave hello to her friend she stepped backwards to get her balance except the beach dropped away there!

It was very windy this morning and the waves were quite wavy. As Mrs. Claus lost her footing a really big wave came up and took her for a swim she wasn’t planning on! She told me it all happened so fast her mind couldn’t keep up. She was just suddenly on the bottom of the ocean!

Once she was able to find her way to the surface for air she had to figure out how far out to sea the strong tide had taken her. That was when she looked around and realized she couldn’t see! Her glasses had been washed away!

Luckily everyone on the beach saw Mrs. Claus go under and a nice young man who was there surfing helped her onto his surfboard. As they were paddling back to shore he teased her that her missing glasses were probably making some old sea turtle with horrible vision very happy right now!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: glasses, Mrs Claus, sea turtles

Children,

Would you ever guess that there would be no plants in the Garden of the Gods? We needed 4 wheel drive and a guide to get there in the dark before sunrise! I never would have guessed that the Garden of the Gods in Hawaii would look like Mars! The rocks turned red and purple as the sun came up!

Our guide told us the legend is that the spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors are in the rocks that are mysteriously stacked up all over the place. And that the Gods like being artistic so they whipped up huge winds to make the rocks beautiful.

The other story is that two priests (kahunas) one from Lanai and one from Molokai were told that which ever preist could keep a fire burning on their island longer would be rewarded with great abundance! And that the Lanai kahuna used every scrap of plant life to keep his fire burning, which is why it is so barren there to this day.  Mrs. Claus and I can’t decide if this guy won or lost! What do you think? : )

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: Garden of the Gods, Hawaii, kahuna, Mars

Children,

What a wonderland Hawaii is! I am so grateful that Mrs. Claus searched the world over and chose Hawaii to visit! Yesterday as we flew over the islands in a helicopter I truly could believe the old story that long ago Pele (a powerful Goddess) made the volcanoes that have become Hawaii burst 18,000 feet up out of the ocean floor! Did you know that hula dancers tell old stories like this when they dance? Like whole body sign language!

The stories are all true about being greeted by ladies who put flowers around your neck and the weather being perfect every single day. Everything has been such fun, the fishing, the beaches, the geckos : ) but our favorite thing even more than fresh pineapple and napping has turned out to be Hawaii’s outrageously colorful sunrises and sunsets! If someone were to paint them it would look like a bucket of rainbow sherbet smeared across a canvas and you would say that looks SO fake!

Remember where Mrs. Claus and I live the sun rises slowly and stays up half the year then sets slowly and we have night for the other half the year. It probably seems silly to you but imagine how odd it is to us seeing the sun rise and set each day in stead of once a year! It’s like a fancy magic trick and we haven’t missed one yet! Better than cookies! And Santa does NOT say that lightly! Ho Ho Ho!

Well I had better get to bed we are off to the Garden of the Gods tomorrow!

Sweet Dreams Children,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Garden of the Gods, Hawaii, Santa

Tagged as: Hawaii, Postcard, Santa, Vacation

“While slipping on the sliding ice… sipping chicken soup with rice. In February it will be my snowman’s anniversary with cake for him and soup for me sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice”

Whenever I say the word JANUARY I always think of those words by Maurice Sendak! If you don’t know Chicken Soup With Rice you surely know Where the Wild Things Are? Wonderful books!

SO! Here we are at the end of January just about done packing our bags to go to Hawaii! Mrs. Claus is excited to take a helicopter ride over the volcanoes. Actually I am too. On Christmas Eve I rush around the world in such a busy frenzy that I don’t really even get to see the sights and enjoy the places that I go. It will be nice to travel at what will surely feel like a turtle’s pace, rest under palm trees and wander around with nothing but our curiosity to guide us!

Fresh pineapple! I am really looking forward to fresh pineapple! Okay I must get back to packing. February holiday is my one chance all year to read something other than the Naughty and Nice list! Ho Ho Ho! Santa is very silly today!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: helicopter ride, January, Maurice Sendak, Santa

Happy New Year Dear Children!

I do hope you had the most wonderful Christmas! We are finally resting a bit up here at the North Pole. The reindeer get SO tired going around the whole Earth in one night! We have magic to slow the clock, and magic to help the reindeer fly, if only there were magic for our aching feet!

I am not complaining at all! On the contrary, we wait all year for that moment when the first Christmas morning sun rises for the children of Tonga! (That is just east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean) Did you know every day begins in Tonga? From there the sun rises its way around the globe as it becomes Christmas morning on one continent after the next! That is what Mrs. Claus, the elves, and I do this for; to feel the joy children fill the world with on Christmas morning! We stay awake for every last Christmas morning everywhere around the world, because that is when the real magic happens!

Mrs. Claus always has an amazing breakfast waiting for us. This year she made eggs Benedict and French toast! You would not believe how much maple syrup the reindeer like on their French toast!  After the last Christmas morning has dawned we do go straight to bed and usually sleep the whole day and the whole next night too!

When I finally wake up I am so achy that a bubble bath is the only thing for it. You can imagine how sooty I get from all of the comings and goings I make going up and down chimneys all night! It takes a week of bubble baths to get my dimples merry again! Even the reindeer soak in specially designed large copper tubs. Their trainers know which deer need to soak in hot water and which deer need to soak in ice! Once they have wrinkled up like raisins they are given a well deserved massage.

I’m not sure how many of you know that in the past few years we have begun using 2 teams of reindeer for Christmas Eve, so that we can switch out for a fresh team half way thru the night. The amount of children in the world has gotten to be too much for a single team to accomplish safely.

We’ll be taking it really easy around here for the rest of January as we pack to go on holiday in February! We are thinking Hawaii this year. It has been hundreds of years since Mrs. Claus and I have vacationed in Hawaii.

Well my dears I hope this was a Christmas you will hold in your hearts forever, filled with more magic than you ever could have imagined! I have a lot to catch up on before I leave for vacation but I have not forgotten that I promised you a post on the importance of Wishing…

Happy New Year and Much Love!

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Christmas morning, Santa, Tonga

Dear Santa,

Really we’ve barely begun getting to know all of the mysterious creatures on our planet. There really are whales with unicorn horns and whales who sing to each other as they migrate; but are there really flying reindeer? Yes Baden there really are flying reindeer! So, how do they do it?  Well they follow the same rules as airplanes!

747′s weigh 900,000 pounds but hundreds of them fly up into the sky every day! Reindeer only weigh about 200 pounds. They can grow to be 800 pounds but those are not the deer who pull my sleigh through the sky. Little, light reindeer are the speediest! My team of fliers may be little but they are very, very strong.

It works like this- when an airplane (or a reindeer) zooms really fast down the runway the air has to speed up to rush over the curved top part of the wing, which makes the air lighter. It’s really hard for air to get over the curves, but lots and lots of air can woosh really easily under the flat bottom part of the wing which pushes an airplane up!

In the case of reindeer and my sleigh, the air is forced to speed up to get over the curved top of my sleigh and the curves in the reindeers heads and antlers; but it swoops easily right under the flat bottom of my sleigh lifting us up because reindeer can pull the sleigh up to 80 miles per hour!

I hope this makes sense to you. I’m sure it will because you are very clever indeed to have asked such sophisticated questions to begin with! I was looking over my Nice List and I am so glad to see your name right here, well done! Being a 3 year old boy is a big job! It’s not easy being 3 and staying on the Nice List, good work!

What a wonderful wish list you have this year! A fireman outfit is a piece of cake, but I will definitely have to look into what sort of microphone Michael Jackson has.

As for making it snow in Carlsbad California… snow cannot be ruled out with how crazy the weather has been acting latley! But for immediate snowball fight gratification my suggestion is to let mommy take the boy to the snow rather than bringing the snow to the boy. Imagine snow in the desert! How would all of the lizards stay warm! If I recall correctly, Big Bear Mountain is the snowiest place closest to your house? It’s hard to tell from the air which mountain is which, but I do believe either Julian or Big Bear is closest to you! Maybe you and mommy could look over a map, pack a picnic and plan a day trip!?

Thank you so much for your wonderful letter and for being such a good boy all year!

Much Love, Santa Claus

Tagged as: California, Christmas List, flying, Norwhals

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After more than one thousand Christmases it takes quite the story book to inspire me these days!

This is a list of my favorites. (You know how I like lists!) Some of these are old, some are new, some you may have to borrow, some may make you a bit blue. You know how Mrs. Claus cries over happy endings!

NEWEST FAVORITES:

You are My Miracle By Maryann Cusimano Love 2005 (LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!)

The Christmas Candle By Richard Paul Evans, Jacob Collins (Illustrator) 2007 (WOW)

Bear Stays Up By Karma Wilson 2008

The Finest Christmas Tree By John and Ann Hasset 2005

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, Robert Barry 2000

Great Joy, Kate DiCamillo 2007 (WOW)

OLDIES BUT GOODIES:

A Dozen Silk Diapers by Melizza Kajpust 1993 (A favorite among my favorites! Truly unique beautiful story and illustrations)

Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake by Cythia Rylant 1994

Santa Calls, William Joyce 1993

Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg 1985

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett 1998 (GORGEOUS illustrations)

The Reindeer Christmas By Moe Price 1993 (Tells the story of how reindeer came to pull the sleigh)

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Dr. Seuss 1957

The Nativity, Julie Vivas 1988

The Story of Holly and Ivy By Rumer Godden 1957 (A Beautiful newer version was printed in 2006 illustrated by Barbara Cooney! Barbara Cooney’s books are good for the soul!)

AND OF COURSE…

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson1972 (I Ho Ho Ho over those Herdmans in spite of myself every single time!)

Tagged as: books, Christmas

Children,

It is way past pumpkin time in more time zones than not and I do hope each and every one of you is nestled in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head; but I just couldn’t go to sleep without saying how really wonderful it was seeing so many of you at the parade today in NYC!

80 some odd times I have been in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and it was as THRILLING today as it was the very first year! It astounds me that so many people come despite having to stand in the cold and damp for hours and hours. It’s simply miraculous how the weather in no way affects the spirit of excitement one bit! The air is literally alive and bubbling with Joy like ginger ale!

Aren’t the hot air balloons simply enormous! And isn’t the sleigh on my float stunning? What a lucky man I am to sit cradled in the wings of a snow goose from Central Park to Herald Square!

There is so much bustling about here in the village with getting ready for dinner that I am barely missed. As I popped back through the vestibule door this afternoon after the parade Mrs. Claus exclaimed that my timing was perfect! Everyone was just sitting down to begin announcing what we are grateful for.

Where do I even begin with such an enormous undertaking?! I am so abundantly blessed. Being
Father Christmas makes nearly the entire world’s population my family and reminds me of how very small the world really is! I am grateful for everyone of you everywhere; grateful to be the annual bringer of joy to millions; to be the one who ushers in the holiday season at the finale of the parade and the inadvertant inspiration for such a glorious holiday bursting with hope and possibility!

I am grateful for the new baby reindeer, the beautiful scrumptious dinner we ate this afternoon and for the love of Mrs. Claus. I could go on and on and on about how I am also grateful for indoor plumbing in below zero weather, thermal waterproof socks and my shiny new red laptop that allows me to send letters to millions of children with a single button…

Good night my children sleep well!

And I sincerely hope that your Thanksgiving was as blessed as could be!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: central park, floats, Herald Square, Macy Day Parade, thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving my American Friends! This might be my favorite of the newer holidays that we have adopted up here in my village! We have elves from every country here at the Pole so we celebrate nearly every holiday! Thanksgiving is a really big event around here though because it marks for us the beginning of the Final Stretch To Christmas!!!

It’s Mrs. Claus though actually who is absolutely Thanksgiving crazy! She spends weeks pouring over recipes in magazines trying to see if there is any possible way to improve upon her favorites.  The Vestibule becomes  something of a revolving door as she collects all of the things we need to make dinner!

We can grow almost everything here except cranberries! There are definitely no cranberry bogs in the North Pole! Twyla and Mrs. Claus pop into a farm in Maine and pop back with back packs and cloth grocery bags full of fresh cranberries!

Beasley and Cicely call in extra help to harvest sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squash in the greenhouses. For weeks they’ve been pressing apples and storing cider in the root cellar! What a treat cider will be!

Elves are already very busy baking mountains of pies, rolls and bread for stuffing! Positively vats of gravy will be made! We raise turkeys just for this time of year. They are very silly creatures!

Dinner is around 1 in the afternoon and everyone gets very sleepy from eating so much but as folks awake from their naps we collect around a roaring bon fire outside! We roast marshmallows, eat left over turkey legs and pie, tell Fairy Stories, light sparklers and make wishes for the holiday season! It’s a sort of pep rally for the final days of Christmas preparation!

I couldn’t have invented a better holiday myself than one celebrating Gratitude! (And delectible food!)Besides Christmas of course! Hopefully your Thanksgiving party will make the air tingle with the same excitement that keeps the pace absolutely hopping here until I visit your house on Christmas Eve!

What I am most grateful for this year is that I am so lucky to be surrounded by so much love! From you the children of the world, from Mrs. Santa and all my beloved elfin friends!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: cider, cranberries, greenhouse, squash, thanksgiving

Dear Children,

A little girl named Gabrielle from Vermont sent me a letter this week asking me an excellent question- What is my middle name?

Miss Gabrielle and Children of the World, I was born in what is now Turkey long, long, ago when people weren’t given middle names; in fact, most people didn’t have last names either!

It is a most enjoyable custom though and I would very much love to have a middle name myself! Children what do you suggest for a middle name? If you would be so kind as to email us your suggestions to postmastersanta@live.com Mrs. Claus has agreed to choose one for me!

We anxiously await your suggestions!

Much Love,

Santa _____ Claus

Tagged as: Gabrielle, names, Santa, Vermont

People have been drinking reindeer milk since… well since there have been people! This photo is only about 90 years old? I can’t remember exactly. These are friends of mine who lived in Finland where they love their rich glistening reindeer ice cream! Actually, back then ice cream was a real treat that only happened once in a great while.  In the fall they would dig a deep hole inside of which they would bury a big chunk of ice in the winter to save it from melting until the wild strawberries ripened in the spring! Then they would make one special batch of strawberry ice cream sweetened with honey! The rest of the time they would just make butter and yogurt.

Why is North Pole reindeer ice cream so delicious? Well perhaps it’s because like the rest of us our Reindeer are fed on magical fruits and vegetables grown under the Aurora Borealis! And they drink only the purest 10,000 year old glacial melt water!

Lucky for the reindeer the people in Scandanavia love their 31 flavors of reindeer ice cream and are over joyed to trade us bales of hay and baskets of lichens and moss for it! Delivering the hay to us is not a project for the Vestibule door though. Late at night we fly large sleighs to a farm in the wilderness  and secretly trade ice cream for hay in the dark!

If you have an opportunity to try some reindeer ice cream be sure and ask where it came from! Maybe it was made here in my village! Just talking about it has made me hungry. Off to the kitchen…

Have a Happy Halloween and Happy Diwali Everyone!

Much Love,

Santa

Tagged as: icecream, reindeer, Santa

So, many emails from curious children have arrived asking me many marvelous questions about The Vestibule! It is a fascinating thing after all, a doorway to anywhere! A little boy named Jack from Canada would like to know how a door can be magical and Emily from Texas would like to know who made it?

One of my oldest and dearest elf friends Akins made it for me not too too long ago, only about a hundred and twenty years ago. It was a present for me for Christmas! I will admit I don’t really understand it very well myself, but I will do my best to explain what I do know.

Akins was born in Egypt 4976 years ago. Back then Egyptians were very good at magic. The pictures they drew of it are still on the walls of their pyramids. Those pictures look very mysterious to us now, but they make perfect sense to Akins. Mysteriousness is his business; he’s an elf.

You know how in fairy tales they tell how a fork in a tree’s branches is a doorway between worlds? A passageway from where you are into the fairy world? And how they say the same of hollows in trees? Akins made my door with wood from just such a magical tree!

The arch of the doorway itself he made of metal that he welded (melted) into shape with a bolt of lightning! In a way that only elves really understand lightning is able to sort of bore a hole through the fabric of time! It makes a kind of rabbit hole where if you concentrate really hard on a certain place you can ride a vibration of the earth and jump from where you are to the place you are thinking of!

A vibration is like a wave. Different waves do different things like an earthquake is a wave for shaking the earth, a radio catches waves to play music, microwaves use a wave to cook food, x-rays to take pictures of your bones, and Delta brain waves make you fall asleep. Well, there also happens to be a particular wave for hopping from place to place and time to time!

The tricky part is staying in 2008! I have to be careful not to end up in dinosaur times, or off in the space age future! Getting the things we need to live and to make things, like stockings and toys, sure is a snap now that we have the Vestibule door! Mrs. Claus can pop into a fabric store in Egypt, have a cup of tea in Brittany and visit a yarn shop in Peru all in an afternoon! It isn’t much help with big the things like dirt, or hay, or wood but it sure did come in handy for fresh tulips on Mrs. Claus’ birthday!

Oh! And as for the Egyptian symbols that Akins carved into the door, I am not sure if they are purely for decoration, or if maybe they are part of the magic. Elves like to keep a bit of the mystery to themselves, so I’m sure I will never know the whole story. But now you hopefully have a better idea of the what and how by whom!

Happy Thanksgiving to All of My Canadian Friends!

XO Santa

Tagged as: Canada, Egypt, elves, portal, vestibule

Are you surprised that elves go to school too?!

How could elves make such incredible toys if they never learned their numbers, or how to use a ruler? How could they help me check the Naughty and Nice lists if they never learn to read?

When elves are little they go to something like your kindergarten, called Morning Garden. Only their classroom really is a garden! We have a very big greenhouse full of the usual things, like a sand box and swings, but we also have unusual things, like an elf sized enchanted fairy house with a real cookie baking oven, and story time on an old flying carpet from ancient Persia!

There is just so much extraordinary magic in the world that elves are taught from the moment they are born to walk and talk,  to disappear and wish! Wishing! Ahhh… wishing. Wishing, for instance, is much more complex than you might think. A Wish is a very powerful thought. Most thoughts just hang around in the air, or fizzle out entirely, but a Wish, a Wish has wings like a Hummingbird!

A Wish moves much faster than your eyes can see, faster than the falling star you may have wished upon! Hmmm… you know something? Wishing really must have its own blog post because this one is meant to tell you about elf school.

Little elves go to Morning Garden to learn lots of things, ABC’s and 123′s, geography from a glowing globe the size of a VW Bug, how to grow things from seeds, and of course, how to get along nicely with each other. But they also learn the most important thing that anyone can ever learn and that is what makes you truly happy! By trying everything the grown up elves do, from baking cookies to knitting stockings, painting toy airplanes to taking care of reindeer, they find what makes them the happiest!

Not only does an elf, or a person, generating happiness make the world a better place, but my brilliant elves have figured out that happiness gives you far more energy than food and sleep combined! The care and feeding of your happiness is your most important job because then everything you do is magical! You bake magical cookies! Write magical stories! Grow magical food!

Did you know that you would have to live 62 lifetimes straight to live as long as an elf!? Imagine having 5000 birthdays! 5000 Christmases! 5000 years adds up to a lot of elf history to learn; and then there’s human history as well; not to mention, elves must learn every language so that they can hear the wishes of every child in every country!

There are the practical things to be learned, like how to live on an iceberg in the extreme cold, and secretly import enough hay for the reindeer : ) And then there are the magical things to be learned like how to make things like sleighs and reindeer fly and enchanted doors immediately, yet safely, relocate a person, like our magical Vestibule!

Not to mention the continuously more complicated, utterly massive undertaking of coordinating hundreds of different holiday customs in 24 different time zones, extreme weather conditions, and getting to an ever  increasing number of children, in a 24 hours or less, frantic global race against the sun rise!

That particular annual challenge is for a wild genius group of elves! Some are young like your human teenagers who are on fire with inspirations and bold new thoughts, but most are wise old, old, old elves who have studied many, many, subjects for many, many, years like engineering, quantum physics, geography, social studies, earth science, and magic. This group LOVES their job!

It is an exciting room to visit indeed! You can actually see the sparks of their powerful brainstorms erupting out of the chimney flue! What a joy it is to see and hear their jubilant cheering and dancing about once they have finally radically rejeuvenated an old method with wild whims and visions!

The Christmas mission provides so many areas for an elf to specialize in over his, or her, long lifetime that there is rarely a boring, or unhappy moment around here! I can personally assure you that the joy of a bouquet of freshly sharpened yellow #2 pencils and brand spankin new pad of paper is as overflowing with the excitement of what is yet to come here at the North Pole as it is at your school!

Remember to listen well to your teachers so that you will learn what a fascinating place this Earth is, and remember to always be looking for what makes your heart burst with happiness!

Happy New Beginnings and Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: back to school, elves, happiness, kindergarten, VW Bug

Today was Mrs. Claus’ Birthday! We always make a very big effort to make her birthday very special. She is so special it’s only right that she have a birthday as special as she! It was a long full day and my tired feet are so grateful to be up at last. Having tea here in front of the fire is the perfect end to what I can only hope Mrs. Claus felt was the perfect day! Ut oh! Mrs. Claus’ tea is still steaming but Mrs. Claus appears to be dreaming! I do believe we wore her out!

This first week of August is always filled with a lovely mix of the exciting stories of everyone’s July travels peppered with the excitement of what ever surprise we are cooking up for Mrs. Santa! This year it was all veeeery hush hush, no one was telling! Not even me!

There were elves hiding away in the Stocking Sewing Room doing what I could not imagine. The ice house and one of the green houses had signs on their doors saying Out of Order and there were exquisite smells coming from winter kitchens that were supposed to be closed for the summer. MY village was positively buzzing with energy but I had absolutely no idea what about!

It didn’t take long though before I couldn’t help myself,,,

Eventually I investigated the source of the delicious smells. My tummy does not actually shake like a bowl full of jelly so its’ okay! It turned out that a group of young elf girls had taken over The Cookie Kitchen for most of a day, and a night, on a very serious mission to create the most perfect birthday cake ever ! Lucky for them normally no one sets foot anywhere near The Cookie Kitchen this time of year. So aside from me (and I was sworn to secrecy) they were able to keep their secret. They did lock the door after I had gone! Mind you these are girls who have majored in Confection Creation and will be graduating from the School of Confection in the spring, so you can imagine how extraordinary their cake is!

OOOOh! Mrs. Santa is smiling while she sleeps! I think she must have had a good day. I hope so. I waited until she was asleep last night to tip toe down to the green house and pick oranges. She looooves fresh squeezed orange juice! I stashed the basket of oranges in the root cellar so they would be cold in the morning. Lucky for me, we very nearly always have oranges ready; our trees were planted so that they blossom and fruit one after the other! Very tricky. We must have oranges for the toes of stockings!

Going to the greenhouse made me think of how nice it would be for Mrs. Claus to wake up to her favorite flowers in the morning. However, she loves Tulips best, only they bloom in the spring after the snow has melted away (well, in places where the snow actually does melt away!) She loves pink ones, and yellow ones, and purple ones… the more colorful the bouquet the more delighted she gets.

What’s a Santa to do? Ah Ha! Suddenly I knew! The Vestibule!!! It’s old, old magic, an archway to anywhere… When you pass through the Vestibule doorway you step over the threshold into where ever you had in mind! I walked through the Vestibule in the North Pole into a flower shop in Holland! (In my bathrobe mind you!) Only the best for Mrs. Claus and the best Tulips come from Holland!

LOOK at them! I bought very nearly every Tulip you see here before the shop even opened for the day! Mrs. Claus was very surprised! Tulips in August! She exclaimed! It made her cry, but it was the kind of cry you have when something happy surprises your heart with being more amazing than what it thought was possible.

Hearing Mrs. Claus’ excitement over the flowers from down the hall Twyla (her closest friend and assistant) came in with warm buns and the freshly squeezed orange juice! We puttered around until lunch when Mrs Claus good mood further brightened over her surprise sushi lunch! And there is no better Sushi than Arctic sushi! We’re very spoiled. Few can honestly say their Sushi was delivered to their front door by a Polar Bear moments after he’s caught it.

After lunch Twyla whisked Mrs. Claus off to be pampered. I’m not entirely sure just what that entails, pampering is very mysterious business. But I do know this, pampering was just a ruse to keep her busy while the girls finished decorating her cake and everyone assembled in the kitchen for the big surprise! Around 3 o’clock Twyla was meant to say “Oh my goodness is it 3 o’clock already? Would you mind if we just pop down to The old Cookie Kitchen really quickly to choose between a few new cookie designs Henning has been working on?” (Henning is the Head Cookie Honcho)

Little did Mrs. Claus know everyone had been collecting in the kitchen while her toes were being painted! As we arrived Beasley (of the green houses) handed each of us a little blue box, all he would say about them was not to open it until he shouted NOW! Just in the nick of time we had every last elf stuffed inside the kitchen, each and every one tall and small holding a curious blue box, waiting in the dark for 3 o’clock!

I can honestly say Mrs. Claus was thoroughly surprised to see all of us standing there shouting Happy Birthday when the door opened! Beasley and the girls shouted NOW and we all opened our little blue boxes. Butterflies of every size and color filled the room! Hundreds of butterflies danced around us!

And there on the table sat the cake, fit for the queen of the fairies’ wedding! Only enormous for so many of us. (The girls enchanted the cake with replenishing magic just in case! Clever girls!)

Clever girls who truly outdid themselves! Their amazing creation had three over sized layers of the fluffiest white cake that tasted of … well, I’m not sure; but I almost know… I will be sure to tell you when it comes to me where I know that mysterious flavor from! If you ask the girls what it is they just smile with a twinkle in their eyes and say its magic!

The most delightful lemon icing tickled your tongue with the flavor of warm summer sunshine! Each layer of the cake was filled with whipped cream and strawberries sandwiched inside! Brightly colored pansies were meticulously placed all over and it glowed with the most delicate tall white candles! I over heard someone behind me whispering that they had once decorated a cake with chive flowers and it had made the entire cake taste like onions! Imagine!

As we were finishing our cake and reindeer ice cream (remind me to tell you more about Reindeer ice cream!) a few elves scurried out the door. They quickly returned pulling a good sized red wagon with a large beautifully wrapped gift in it. They wheeled it right up to Mrs. Claus, beside themselves with anticipation! She pulled off the big lavender bow, ripped open the yellow paper and what was inside!? The most enormous butterfly kite you have EVER seen! Every elf had helped to sew it together! It was bigger than a King sized quilt! Happy crying again for Mrs. Claus! After much hugging and thanking they wheeled the kite away to go set up outside for lift off while we finished our cake.

The kite was enormous and elves are small. So how did they propose to run their tiny little legs around fast enough to get a gigantic kite into the air? Brilliant creatures! They weren’t going to run at all! Elves are the masters of invention! Reindeer! Reindeer can run more than sixty miles an hour alone, more together! Piece of cake. They tied the kite strings to Blythe and Waldo’s harnesses and they were off! It rose into the air and fluttered around looking quite real! Everyone swears the realistic fluttering is 100% good old fashioned engineering and zero % enchantment!

Now ahhh… here we are in front of the fire, sleepy and happy after Mrs. Claus’ magical 1734th birthday!

Good Night Sweet Children and Happy Birthday My Sweet Mrs. Claus!

Your Santa Claus

Tagged as: birthday, butterfly, Holland, Mrs Claus, tulips

It is very quiet around here this month. July is when the elves go on holiday! They are gone for the whole month! Hundreds of elves live here but only a few stay behind to help Mrs. Claus and I look after things. We only do a few little chores a day, water plants and pick vegetables in the green houses, feed reindeer of course, and freshen their bedding. 

The reindeer spend quiet July enchanted with the growing babies trying everything for the first time! It is a wobbly suspenseful thing to watch them learn how to stand! For hundreds of years hundreds of babies have been born in our barns but I will never grow tired of watching that moment when a fawn first realizes there is another deer his size. They sniff each other cautiously and then suddenly from what I can only imagine is a tiny spark deep inside of their souls such Joy bursts out! 

Within minutes they’re playing like old friends, like they have been alive forever! How can they be up and about after just being born!? This is a happy mystery that will never grow old! They are brilliant creatures, reindeer are, and they learn very quickly that Santa Claus has pockets full of mushrooms! And visits with a pail full of strawberries! They are sweet babies and I cannot help but spoil them! 

The elves who stay behind take their vacation with Mrs. Claus and I in February. Hmmmm… where should we go this year? I wonder where the elves who have gone away for July have gone?! They always come back with so many photos! They celebrate having the first half of the year’s work behind us! They celebrate seeing family they may not have seen since last July; they celebrate discovering new flavors of toothpaste! Elves just love to celebrate! Nothing is too small to celebrate- a long awaited gelato in Florence, a ride around the Eye in London, cider donuts in Vermont. Elves are great hunters of happiness, finders of fun, absolutely expert savorers basking in any and all available deliciousness!

Most elves have family in Ireland and Scotland. Oh! And many have families in various Scandanavian countries. For the most part they rest and visit with family the first week. Then they pack it up and go somewhere exotic like Fiji, The Cook Islands or Graceland. (Even elves love Elvis) Remember elves live to be over 5000 years old, so the world can change dramatically during their life times.

This is a good rest for them just before the pre Christmas rush! After about the third week of July they start to arrive back here a few at a time rested, rejeuvenated and ready to make Christmas happen! Actually, I am feeling like a nap myself! There is a hammock hanging between a pecan and a walnut tree in the green house with my name on it!

Much Love,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Christmas, Elves on Holiday, Santa, Santa's Elves

It’s amazing to think we are nearly half way through 2008 already! Did you know that June 30th is the day that the year is officially half way over? It is the 182nd day of the year and every June we must make a careful count to see if we are half way through getting ready for Christmas.

We need to have half of all of the mittens knitted, half of all of the dolls made, half of all of the bicycles put together… It’s a big job making toys for all of the children of the world.

Imagine, every minute about 150 new babies are born! That means that every hour there are 9,000 more babies! That’s 216,000 babies that are born every day! Which adds up to 78,870,000 babies every year! And THAT my friends adds up to a lot of teddy bears and bicycles! Doll houses and toy barns, tea sets and dump trucks.

Every day many children do grow out of childhood and become grown ups but there are definitely many more babies born which has kept us on our toes finding new Christmas magic so we can keep up!

Perhaps we always have enough by Christmas because Elves live to be 5000 years old an have time to get very good at their jobs?

Maybe its because we make our toys under the glowing colored lights of the Aurora Borelalis?! Do you know about the Aurora Borealis? It is a great streak ofextraordinary colored lights in the sky that happen when zingy bits of the sun’s solar wind collide with the chilly air high up in our highest night sky. So much colliding creates a lot of extra energy that lights up as though Tinker Bell has been by!

I know a wonderful little girl named Aurora who lives in Amarillo! Well what ever the reason the elves or the lights we will be ready come Christmas Eve night!

Take Care One and All,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Aurora Borealis, babies, elves, green houses, June, midnight sun, solar panels

All of the new baby reindeer are up and about!

Next to Christmas Eve there is not much that is more exciting for us here than when the baby reindeer are born! Every year in the last week of May, or first week of June, ten or fifteen new babies are born. The air is alive with the exciting suspense of when it will begin! The barns never have more visitors than when we’re waiting on babies. Folks make quite a nuisance of themselves, popping in and out, asking if anything is happening yet!

The more uncomfortable and impatient the mamas become though, the more cross and cranky their annoyed snorts! The thing of it is, is, the mamas all have their babies at very nearly the same time. So when the first baby begins to be born, hold onto your hat! In the wild reindeer have their babies at the same time so the herd can stay together. Deer are nomadic.

Most deer in our herd prefer to come here to have their babies in the safety of our lovely barn. There are no wolves or other threats here and I’m fairly certain they look forward to our barrels spilling over with carrots and apples!

Mrs. Claus is crazy about reindeer! She just loves them. She helps Anouk and her assistants with the calving until every last baby is born. There is a lot to be done, freshening hay, feeding and watering, comforting the mamas and welcoming the babies. Like a hummingbird she knows exactly which flowers to feed them to help having babies hurt less, stay healthy and arrive a bit easier.

Each baby has such personality it makes naming them very fun! This year we had eleven babies- Ruby, Godiva, Zinger, Brawley (in photo), Hedley, Acorn, Lindy, Olander, Ailish, Milo and Splat. Their fur is so soft, they are very precious! Newborns walk not long after they are born and they only stay here inside the barn for a week or so before venturing outside into the snow.

There are no spots on their fur like Bambi has, but they have these eyes; oh their chocolaty loving eyes, they melt my heart and charm me into spoiling them so!  It’s amazing how fast baby deer grow up isn’t it! By the time they are two they are all grown up! It’s hard to believe now but this wobbly fuzzy lot will weigh about 200 lbs each and be ready to pull my sleigh the year after next!

Well my friends it is time for me to head back to work. Warmest Wishes.

Your,

Santa Claus

Tagged as: Baby Reindeer, Christmas, Santa

Tagged as: Arctic, Big Dipper, constellation, Earth, North Star, Santa, Ursa Major, Village

It warms my heart, even this far north, to receive so many wonderful letters from so many children! There are few on earth who get as much mail as I do every single day. Your love is the greatest blessing of my job! What a lucky man you make me!

I must tell you that for quite some time now I have been wishing for a way to write back to every child who writes to me. I’m afraid that even I do not have enough magic for that extraordinary task, despite Mrs. Claus and many elves helping me return letters every day! Sadly it feels as though we could still touch the moon if we climbed to the top of the pile of unanswered letters.

Today, my wish was granted! Mysterious brown paper packages arrived with the hundreds of letters from children around the world! Inside one of the packages were a bright red lap top and all of the gadgets necessary to have wireless internet! It was like Christmas in May for the Elves and I!

Immediately they began pulling computer parts out of their wrappers, plugging in cords, connecting this to that and the other thing. You may imagine that Elves are old fashioned but oh how they are fascinated by technology gizmos!

So, now thanks to my brilliant Elfin friends each letter that I write has the opportunity to reach millions of boys and girls at a time! It gives me great pleasure to be able to share a peek into my incredibly blessed life with the children of the world!

Have a wonderful day and check back soon to hear what the month of May is like for us here in our village!

Much Love Always,

Your Santa Claus

Tagged as: blog, Christmas, elves, Laptop, mail, Santa