4 Months Until Christmas

Hello, friends! There are just 4 months now until Christmas. And things are really happening at the North Pole these days.

Let’s talk reindeer, shall we?

My inbox is full of questions about reindeer.

For example, when the sleigh crash of one of the test flights of Santa’s sleigh happened last week, many wrote in wanting to know if the reindeer were hurt and what exactly happened to them.

Those are good questions and I want to answer them here.

First of all, the sleigh crash happened despite everything the test pilot and the reindeer could do. There were some high winds and they were flying very low over the water. The work of the pilot and the reindeer in testing Santa’s sleigh requires them to work under those kind of conditions. They know the potential for trouble is there all the time. They are trained to deal with it.

In this case, the sleigh “tipped” to the left and very quickly it tipped too far, causing the sleigh and the reindeer to drop very quickly into the water.

Fortunately, they were over water. That gave them a “soft”, although wet” landing. That is why the pilot and the reindeer were not hurt.

Many were concerned, asking if the reindeer could swim. The answer to that question is “yes”, reindeer are natural swimmers. Also, because they were flying over water, they were wearing safety equipment designed to help them keep their heads above water should they end up in the ocean. Those devices worked very well and at no time were the reindeer in danger of drowning.

Reindeer are not big fans of water. They get wet all the time, whether working for Santa or being out in the wild, from storms that pass over them. They also from time to time cross rivers and streams which also cause them to get wet. But they generally avoid large bodies of water or instances that would require them to swim. So, to speculate that they “enjoyed” their brief time in the ocean would be a mistake. They did NOT like it.

But these are professional reindeer we are talking about. They are specially trained for emergency situations like this. So they handled it professionally. Within minutes they were “rescued” by a specially trained group of elves from the SS Jingle Bell and they got out of the water quickly.

Once safely aboard the SS Jingle Bell, they were examined by doctors, cleaned and dried off, and fed a good meal. All of the reindeer are reported to be in excellent condition and ready to return to active duty. Same for the test pilot.

Reindeer will be the topic of a lot of discussion in the weeks ahead. We anticipate that perhaps by the end of September the return of all reindeer to the North Pole may happen.

In fact, our chat this month scheduled for September 24th, will be with Elf Victor, the head of Reindeer Operations at the North Pole. By then he might be able to share news of their return or even some pictures of some of the reindeer.

I can tell you that I have been over the the Reindeer barns and they are stock piling food and supplies for the return of the reindeer.

We never know the exact date of their return. Santa doesn’t ask them to come back at any given time. They just know when it is time to return. Some years we see them starting to return in the latter part of August, and other years they do not show up until maybe the third week or so of November. They just seem to know the right time to be back.

We want to answer your reindeer questions. September is a good time to do it. So if you want to ask a question, please visit this page to submit it. We will discuss it in the chat with Elf Victor or maybe even write an article about it.