Several weeks ago we asked school teachers of the world to send in questions for us to answer, as we do every year, and we received more than 4000 responses.

This year school teachers submitted some of the most difficult questions Elf Crash has ever had to answer.

Crash surprised me in this episode because he taught me some things I never knew. That’s shows the value in asking really good questions, something a news guy like me should know.

We also spent some time talking about some not-so-good questions and why it is important not to waste time of anyone at the North Pole by asking about things that don’t relate to the North Pole.

We do try to be friendly. But we have an obligation to our entire audience to keep things on topic. We hope you remember that when you ask questions. We know a lot about Christmas and Santa and elf life. We don’t know much about the mysteries of science, the wonders of nature, the timing of a 1968 Chevy Monte Carlo or the batting average of Ted Williams in 1958. We hope you’ll keep that in mind when you ask questions.

This episode talks a lot of non-belief in Santa and the role parents have with Santa Claus. Good honest discussion.

This is just part one of a two part episode dedicated to these questions. We can’t answer all 4000 questions that we received but we can certainly answer more by adding an extra episode dedicated to these questions from teachers this year.

In a special episode of the North Pole Podcast elves Frank Myrrh and Crash Murphy discuss the work of a professional Santa Tracker, Elf Petey LaCroix.

Elf Petey is part of a team of special elves charged with tracking Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. But they aren’t tracking Santa like everyone else does. They are tracking Santa to see the sleigh in action. Using special equipment they try to record the sleigh in flight to learn about how it performs.

Elf Petey, you see, is part of the sleigh design team. It is their job to work to continually improve Santa’s sleigh. That means he not only has to know how to see Santa in high-speed flight but he has to be a sleigh pilot himself. In fact, every member of the professional Santa tracker elf team is a pilot, a sleigh designer, an expert is aeronautics with years and years of highly technical education.

Elf Crash talks with Elf Petey about his experience tracking Santa in this capacity. He talks about why these trackers head out to dark, remote locations only to wait for the split-second moment of time that they can catch Santa in flight. Petey has a number of experiences along the way to share.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Feel free to post any comments or questions you might have below.

Teachers are some of the biggest fans of SantaUpdate.com because this is where they can come to get answers to their many questions. Teachers, you see, get a lot of questions from their students about Santa, the North Pole and Christmas.

Santa, of course, loves teachers. He always has. Santa respects the work they do and wants to support them as much as he can.

In this episode Elves Frank Myrrh and Crash Murphy go on a wide-ranging discussion about some of the most basic questions about Santa and the North Pole. Timeless questions about the Naughty List, Mrs. Claus’ first name and even Santa’s puppy named Sprinkles are all addressed in this fun episode.

Do you have a question about Santa and the North Pole. Feel free to use the comment section below to ask it – maybe your question will be answered in a future episode!

11 weeks until Christmas! Can ya believe it???

This weekend has so many Christmas things going on.

First of all, Santa and Mrs. C have headed out to Canada to celebrate Thanksgiving, as is their tradition every year. Mrs. Claus has family there and they love taking this trip every year. And Santa just loves celebrating Thanksgiving twice. Thanksgiving is, after all, his favorite holiday and it happens in Canada on Monday.

But they will be back pretty fast. I believe they are coming home on Tuesday because there’s this big to-do at North Pole Flight Command about the sleigh. If you’re not following along with the news from Flight Command about the sleigh you might want to start paying attention.

I was involved in a podcast last week with Elves Frank and Crash that featured questions from students and teachers. It was fun to do it.

It is a new episode of the Santa Trackers Podcast and I think many of you might be interested in it. It does cover some stuff about tracking Santa but there are some general Santa/Christmas/North Pole type questions in there too. I’m also adding it here, too.

The reason I bring it up is because we are working on a similar episode for the North Pole Podcast to come out soon. If you are a student or a teacher with a question to ask you can submit it at this link.

Elf Crash loves to do these episodes and he seems to be able to answer just about any question. So ask anything you want!

Christmas cards are also on the minds of many here at the North Pole. There are literally hundreds of exchanges set up among the Elf Community and I know several elves who send out thousands of Christmas cards.

When it comes to Christmas cards one of my favorite charity events here at the North Pole is the Christmas-Card-Artists events sponsored by Santa and Mrs. Claus. That starts this weekend, too.

Every year aspiring artists design Christmas cards that get printed for free by SantasSleigh.org, a little organization that helps families in need at Christmas. The event features a big display of each card and the artist is there to explain their design.

There are some artists there as young as 4-years-old and Santa puts no restrictions on who can design a card.

Elves and North Pole citizens can order cards and proceeds go back to SantasSleigh.org for the upcoming season. For many elves in Christmas card exchanges this is the only way they get their cards.

I joined a Christmas card exchange for the first time a year ago.

I thought at first it was kind of a hokey thing to do but when each day brought lots of cards to my mailbox I changed my mind. I enjoyed getting cards from people all over the world and now I think this is my new favorite Christmas tradition.

If you haven’t tried it I humbly recommend this Christmas card exchange at MyMerryChristmas.com

October is such a great time for Christmas events. Another event I won’t miss will be the Eggnog Workshop that happens next weekend.

Of course, Halloween is coming and you know what a big deal that is here at the North Pole. More on that next week, kids. Until then…

….toodles.

Rudolph is the subject of a new episode of the North Pole Podcast that is turning a lot of heads. Elf Crash Murphy shares never before known information about Santa’s most famous reindeer.

Rudolph is famous for having a red nose that “lights like a light bulb” and has been utilized by Santa in bad weather situations more than once to save Christmas.

In the story, made famous by a book and song, Rudolph is bullied by other reindeer for his unusual physical features and abilities.

But in this episode Elf Crash explains that what you hear in the song and read in the book is not quite totally accurate – and that it, in fact, depicts other reindeer wrong. Donner, who is Rudolph’s father, is assailed in the story and the television special as insensitive to Rudolph and ashamed of his appearance. Elf Crash tells us this is not true.

Even more importantly, Crash tells us that there is a lot more to Rudolph than his blinking nose. And that could be the most surprising revelation of all.

Play the podcast episode via the player above.

Elf Crash answers questions in this latest episode of the North Pole Podcast.

He tackles the issue of how to see reindeer fly, what a teacher should and should not say in the classroom about Santa and even why Santa occasionally misses someone’s house.

These questions come from site visitors to SantaUpdate.com. We get them by the thousands.

We will try to keep up with providing answers to the questions via more podcast episodes, the North Pole Radio News reports and via additional Santa updates as we go along this year in trying to tell the story of Santa and the North Pole.

If you have a question you want to ask, please see this link.

Many elves here at the North Pole are starting to express concern about Santa’s lead reindeer, Donner. All of Santa’s reindeer have returned to the North Pole except for Donner. The others have all been back for more than a month.

This is a big concern because Donner is the team leader. He sets the conditioning schedule. The team does not train together unless Donner is there. Santa appears to know what is happening with Donner and has told everyone not to worry. But the elves are starting to talk.

Operation Merry Christmas is just weeks away from kicking off. One of the biggest parts of that event is the reindeer games. The games are used to help Santa – and Donner – to decide roles that reindeer will play when it comes to Christmas. While Santa’s team is assigned and well known most do not realize that it takes thousands of reindeer in a world-wide effort to help Santa deliver. Those reindeer all need to be evaluated to see what they can do so they can be assigned to the right duty on Christmas Eve.

North Pole Radio News visited with the elves in the Reindeer Barn earlier today and you can hear their report below.

We will keep you posted.

Elves Frank and Crash take on the difficult question of how Santa gets Around the World in One Night. It is one of the most common questions we get here at the North Pole.

Truth be told, Santa does not really get around the world in one night – it’s more like two days. The world has so many time zones that people just think he does it in one night. We track him from the North Pole every year and the truth is that he is in flight for over 32 to sometimes 48 hours every Christmas.

But of course, Santa delivers in every time zone while people are asleep. As he moves from time zone to time zone he stays in the window the whole way – which takes much more than just one night. It just seems like one night because most people only think of their own time zone, not the time zones of others.

In fact, in this episode Elf Crash tells of a time when he was in school and an inspired teacher tried to get his class to answer the question using math and science.

Crash explains why that is not necessary.

This is a good episode, one that not only answers the question but also an episode that shows how tired elves can get sometimes by just answering this question.

Enjoy!