24 Weeks Until Christmas

The countdown calendar says that there are now just 24 weeks until Christmas. And I have to tell you: it’s really starting to feel like Christmas right now.

You may have been enjoying all the chats going on at North Pole Chat here and the Santa Tracker Chat over at SantaTrackers.net. I know I have. I have learned a lot by seeing the chats from elves we do not often talk with.

For example, this chat with Elf Buck Sanchez revealed some really neat stuff this week about Santa’s flight. I had no idea how many elves, sleighs and reindeer it takes for Santa to do his job.

There was something about that chat this week that just really put me in the mood for Christmas.

Hours after that chat I accompanied Mrs. Claus to the Great Hall of Christmas, which is like an expo center here at the North Pole. The Christmas Tree Exposition was underway and Mrs. Claus had the duty of reviewing this year’s trees.

The Christmas Tree Exposition is a public display of what will be shown this year down Christmas Tree Lane at the North Pole. These are the “official” Christmas trees of North Pole Village.

They are considered the very best Christmas trees in the world and everyone here – and I mean everyone – looks to the designers and ornament makers and tree experts at the Christmas Tree Exposition to know what will be hot in tree decorating in the months ahead.

What I saw this year I cannot describe.

First of all, the debate over real Christmas trees versus artificial Christmas trees rages here at the North Pole.

In most areas of the North Pole we cannot grow our own trees. So going out and getting a tree isn’t the tradition here as it is in other parts of the world. Even still, real trees remain the honest preference of nearly everyone who lives at the North Pole.

Artificial trees here are respected and any serious decorator knows that a real tree is considered “the best”.

They may be rethinking that with all the new fake trees coming out this year.

The thing about fake trees is that they look great from far away – but they become more fake the closer you get to them.

Not any more.

The fake trees coming out now are almost impossible to detect. They look and SMELL like a real tree.

And what they can do decorating-wise with these new fake trees – well, a real tree could never pull that off.

Imagine it: you see a rather normal looking 7-foot Christmas tree from across a room. You think, “Oh, that looks pretty!”. Then, within the blink of an eye, the tree suddenly changes completely in color.

It piques your curiosity and so you approach the tree to get a closer look. You get within a few feet of it and instantly your nose is hit with a cool refreshing breeze of balsam, cedar and – get this – nutmeg and warm sugar.

I kid you not.

I saw one of these trees and what is described above is exactly what happened to me. The closer I got to the tree the more fragrant it became. Finally, I reached the tree and touched it and it was soft, and cool, and velvety. Nothing like the plastic trees you see everywhere.

Mrs. Claus was blown away by what she saw and so was I. But even better, I came away from that event and excited to look at our countdown calendar to see how far away it all is.

Well, it’s not far away at all, guys.

Just 24 weeks. Wow.