Fun Facts about Santa & the North Pole

I've always been a Christmas / Winter Holiday nut.

My family - especially my Dad- always made a huge thing of it with many overlapping traditions and inevitably too much money spent on gifts under the tree.

Of course I loved it. And I always tried to create similar or at least similarly impactful traditions and memories for the kids.

One of the things we've done for several years is fill an advent calendar with little things.

Ours is a a quilted sock monkey wall calendar with little pockets for each day made for us by my stepmom.

My little ones aren't so little anymore and this year has been crazy.

They have been out of the classroom and mostly housebound since March, as so many of us have been.

I thought the usual little stickers and markers and such might be a bit too childish for them this year so...

I arranged to have an elf write them a note each day of December with little peice of chocolate for each of them. I mean... I don't think many outgrow chocolate....

The notes from Figgy the elf are below....

December 1st  2020

Dear 'Mack kids' , Sorry this is late.

Ellie, the elf who usually handles your case has been sick so we lost track of your file.

Don’t worry it’s not CoVid…Just an allergy to peppermint schnapps (ahem…)

CoVid hasn’t really hit up here thankfully.

Although there is a virus going around we’ve called the ‘Blitzen plague. You see a couple years ago Blitzen got something that caused red eyes, fatigue and little dark bumps all over. He even lost his fur in patches where the bumps came up. Weird huh? Since then other reindeer have gotten it and about 40 Elves too. No CoVid though. 

Anyway, I’m the new elf assigned to you guys. Hope you guys are ok.

I know it’s been a crazy year and you guys have been doing the best you can. Keep being awesome!!! 

So I thought since you guys are not so little anymore we’d do something a little different. Starting tomorrow I’ll be bringing you ‘FUN & INTERESTING’ facts about the North Pole and Santa. Stay Tuned! 

Cheers,

Figgy  

December 2nd  2020

FUN FACT #1  

Santa isn’t the sweet tooth everyone thinks he is. That’s more Mrs. Claus. 

Santa is more of a meat and potatoes guy. Give him a good poutine or Sheppard’s pie and he’s a happy camper.

December 3rd 2020 

FUN FACT #2

Santa is an incredible woodworker. He designs carves and paints his magical sleighs himself. The current sleigh is his fourth. The first three are still here in the main workshop for decoration and posterity.

December 4th 2020 

FUN FACT #3

Santa didn’t always use flying reindeer. He used to use flying sled dogs.

Same magic different animal. The descendants of those sled dogs are still here. About 60 huge Malamute/ Husky/ Wolf crosses live in a big kennel next to the Reindeer stables.

December 5th 2020 

FUN FACT #4

In the centre of the icy mountain that houses the workshop where we all work and live is a giant stone fireplace. It has been burning now, nonstop, for hundreds of years.

December 6th 2020 

FUN FACT #5

Santa sleeps from January 1st to around the first week of March every year. Can you blame him? Mrs. Claus always jokes he’s just hibernating cause he’s part bear.

December 7th 2020 

FUN FACT #6

Rudolph’s nose was not a lightbulb as portrayed in the song and stories. As far as we can tell it’s actually ‘bioluminescence’ like fireflies or jellyfish. He was also never teased or made an outcast. We don’t work that way up here. 

He was born before electric lights so he was super useful. Rudolph is retired now as he’s getting up there. As for lights, Santa has a state of the art LED set up now. 

December 8th 2020 

FUN FACT #7  

Mrs. Claus has a secret ingredient she adds to her hot chocolate recipe.

Not even Santa knows what it is. Whatever it is it makes the most delicious, addictive hot chocolate you’ve ever tasted.

December 9th 2020 

FUN FACT #8

The elves that live and work at the North Pole have always been here, as far back as any of us can remember. Even before the Claus’ came and set up their toy workshop.

December 10th 2020 

FUN FACT #9

Santa’s Birthday is December 6th.

Happy Birthday to your Dad! 

Hope he’s having a great day and enjoying “Cyberpunk 2077”

All of us elves are under strict house rules: No Cyberpunk 2077 until December 26th, for obvious reasons. (heh) 

December 11th 2020

FUN FACT #10 

We always get asked how the reindeer fly. 

There is a fungus/mushroom that grows up here that survives only two weeks and dies off. 

It blooms right around the winter solstice. It has some properties we still don’t fully understand that give the deer the ability to fly until it goes through their system. We discovered it about three hundred years ago when several young deer ate some and we found them flying around the stables. Anyway, we just add it to the deer feed on Christmas Eve morning and we’re off to the races.

December 12th 2020

FUN FACT #11 

Santa and Mrs. Claus love rock and roll music. 

They like to tell everyone that AC/DC’s ‘Shook me All Night Long’ was their wedding song. They dance to it every anniversary. We know it can’t be true because they were married long before AC/DC or even Rock music.

December 13th 2020

FUN FACT #12  

North Pole Elves are pretty much immune to the cold. Most of us don’t wear coats or boots or anything unless it’s really bad.

December 14th 2020

FUN FACT #13

Santa has a green and grey scarf that Mrs. Claus made him that he wears under his coat every Christmas Eve for the Big Night. He’s kinda superstitious about it. Like a major league ballplayer with special ‘game day’ socks, he won’t leave the house without it. (We’ve had a couple of close calls.)

December 15th 2020

FUN FACT #14

The Factory here at the North Pole runs twenty-four hours a day 363 days a year, taking a break only on December 25th & 26th.

December 16th 2020

FUN FACT #15

Santa speaks every language on the planet, including crying baby and silent moody teen.

(Sorry for the delay in getting these to you, it’s getting pretty busy here at the North Pole.)

December 17th 2020

FUN FACT #16

There are several sentient snow ‘people’ who reside with us here at the north Pole (sort of like Frosty or Olaf.) The main house steward is actually a several hundred year old snowman named Vinter.

December 18th 2020

FUN FACT #17 

Santa and Mrs. Claus have a striped, scruffy grey cat named ‘Cookies.’ She is very old. No one can even remember how old anymore. All the elves are terrified of her. She always looks like she’s going to make a meal of one of us. We don’t think she has... (yet!) 

December 19th 2020

FUN FACT #18

My great-grandmother master toymaker Mallow created one of the first ‘Teddy Bears.’ She was initially attempting to make a softer doll with a fur coat to be more cuddly but it ended up looking like a furry human which was weird. So she added little bear ears and covered it all in fur and the rest is ‘stuffie’ history.

December 20th 2020

FUN FACT #19 

This probably won’t be much of a surprise but we don’t take down the Holiday lights here at the North Pole. They’re always up. And beside the entrance of our main toy warehouse/workshop there is a thirty foot fully decorated tree that has been up since the warehouse opened its doors. The decorations change but the tree has never come down.

December 21st 2020

FUN FACT #20

At the North Pole the sun starts to rise, appearing on the horizen on March 21st (spring equinox.) It then continues to get brighter and brighter until June 21st (Summer solstice) when the sun is highest in the sky. Then it starts to go the other way, creeping lower and lower until September 21st (Autumn Equinox.) Then the North Pole is in twilight (sunset)  until early October when all goes completely dark and we won’t see any daylight again until the next March 21st. Crazy huh?

Also up here all the world’s 24 Time Zones converge (meet at a single point) making analog clocks go nuts and the very concept of time meaningless. With time and day and night being so strange up here it kind of makes sense how Santa plays by different time and space rules and does all he does in a single night.

Anyway, Happy Winter Solstice, the shortest “day” of the year in the Northern Hemispere.

December 22nd 2020

FUN FACT #21

You may have heard this one: Hanging stockings to be filled with presents started when at different points in history the authorities in different places wanted to stop Santa from delivering gifts and claimed he was ‘breaking the law’. So when people hung their socks to dry by the warm fire he would just hide the gifts inside them. It slowly became a tradition. 

December 23rd 2020

FUN FACT #22

So I mentioned Rudolph was retired but all the original reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen have been ‘off duty’ for some years now. 

The reindeer driving the sleigh now are children or grandchildren of these guys. Donner and Comet have had over twenty kids together. Seven of the ten reindeer flying this year are their offspring. As far as I know the ten flying this year are Hiccup, Cruise, Zipper, Zuzu, Jaunt, Haze, Hammer, Bolt, Bowie and Bits.

December 24th 2020

FUN FACT #23

Santa doesn’t really use the ‘naughty/nice’ list. 

He doesn’t need to. He just knows. The list is mostly for us elves.

He also doesn’t actually need a letter to know what it is you’re wishing for.. 

Again he just knows…

He loves getting the letters though. He reads and keeps every one.

Have a wonderful holiday!