As we enter a new year in tracking Santa for Santa we once again announce refinements to the tracker elf program that will help improve our efforts.

This is our constant process as elves. Each Christmas we are evaluated in our performance. The purpose is not to get a grade or undue praise. The purpose is to continually improve.

Last year, Santa set out changes to the tracker elf program to better focus on the quality of our work. Those many changes took months to implement. They were evident in the way our website worked, in the training we each received, and in the things we did day to day once we started tracking Santa for Santa.

The results last year showed vast improvement over previous years. Santa enjoyed his most trouble-free flight in history and finished his world tour in record time.

The plans for this year will include more refinement and change. Perhaps the most important is the one we announce here now:

All elf jobs related to tracking Santa for Santa will be re-structured.

This will affect elves working in North Pole Flight Command, at Research and Development in the Sleigh Design Department, all elves working the North Pole Weather Tracking Department, and all elves known as Tracker Elves worldwide.

What does this mean?

It means, effective immediately, all elf jobs, titles, and responsibilities beyond tracking Santa for Santa, have been suspended.

Going forward, a new yearly routine for applying for, training for, and performing in function will be established. All new elf responsibilities will need to be applied for as a new job.

That new job will only be temporary in nature – valid only through next December 26th.

For example, if an elf wants to apply to become a North Pole News Reporter, they can apply for that job during a set application period. If they get the job they will work that job only until December, 26th – at which point they will be relieved of those duties and can apply for other elf positions.

In discussing this strategy with Santa he feels this will help elves to develop strong skills in a number of disciplines. It will make for stronger elves.

Santa remains challenged by elves who start strong but finish weak – those who want jobs, but then don’t do them. He is also frustrated by elves who assume some sort of authority over other elves just because they have a different job.

By making jobs more temporary in nature Santa feels it will better developer stronger elves and nicer elves.

So, as of right now, all of us – me included – are relieved of all elf duties except that as a tracker elf.

In the coming days the new process for securing elf jobs will be announced and the Department of Elf Resources will begin placement for the 2023 tracking season.

Please pay attention to new job postings. There will be more than ever. But they will have new application requirements.

That is all at this time.

The countdown to Santa’s launch now shows that 350 days remain until that big event.

You would not know that is looking at the North Pole right now.

Santa’s workshop is dark and locked up. There is minimal staffing at North Pole Flight Command. The reindeer are lounging at Santa’s Stables and elves are busy with their own families in their own homes right now.

As is tradition, Santa declared a “mandatory” work break, which began on his return to the North Pole on Christmas morning.

Since then the North Pole has celebrated New Year’s, gathering only for a brief ceremony at Flight Command to reset the countdown clock.

Milestones in the countdown come through out the year. The 350-day marker today may, in fact, be the quietest.

As of this date no work on Santa’s new campaign has been done. No lists have been made. No goals have been set. There has been no talk of a new sleigh design, toy production quotas, tracking Santa or stuffing stockings.

That work begins next Monday, January 9th, when Santa and the elves all return to work.

Since Christmas life at the North Pole has been on holiday.

The North Pole celebrates Christmas late – only after the entire world has had their turn.

When Santa returns there are parties, concerts, sledding events and other seasonal celebrations that make up the elf Christmas. Mr. and Mrs. Claus make the rounds, enjoying the company of those who help make the world a merry place at Christmas.

During this period of time Santa refuses to talk to the media and even this little bit of news has to have his approval before we publish it. Santa makes sure we ALL get some down time right after Christmas before we begin again.

So, while this officially marks our first published news of the New Year we still have a day or two of rest and relaxation before we begin again next week.

What can you expect in the weeks and months ahead?

More news and expanded coverage of the North Pole and its efforts. Every year is a new story. Every week is another update in the countdown to Santa’s launch.

There will be chats, podcasts and interviews with important elves. We will, once again, tell the story of Santa and the North Pole.

 

Fellow Elves,

It is my honor, duty and privilege to announce our Elf of the Year. This distinction comes to just one in the Tracker Elf Community for a reason – and that reason IS community.

Out of all the elves who contribute to the efforts of Operation Merry Christmas none need community more than Tracker Elves. That’s because you all work remotely and largely alone. You do not get to attend the meetings, the rallies, the events, the celebrations and all the things that go on at the North Pole.

Your role is a special one. And a hard one. That is why we want to recognize an elf who best exemplifies the community we’re trying to build here among our tracker elves. You all are different, special and unique but you are all connected by your mission and your duties. It is important that you participate here, make your voice heard, get your questions answered and have a place where your Christmas light can shine and your Christmas spirit can be shared.

This past year was a big year for tracking Santa for Santa. We made great strides. We showed incredible improvement. We accomplished a great deal.

But none of those strides, improvements or accomplishments are more important than what one elf brought to us all over the course of this past year. She was present. She was hopeful. She was bright. She was inquisitive. She was helpful. She was merry, kind and always trying her best.

Our Elf of the Year is one we can all agree upon: she is Elf Ulan, of Japan.

It gives me particular satisfaction to recognize an elf from Sector 1 and particularly from the country of Japan. There are not a lot of elves from Japan. Japan is a country still fairly young in their knowledge of Christmas and their support of me.

Elf Ulan is thus a pioneer. She brought Japan to our Christmas table this year and fed us continually with the generous giving spirit of that great country and culture.

And to that country she will continue to bring a knowledge of Christmas and what we do as elves from the North Pole.

I know this recognition of Elf Ulan as Elf of the Year is one you will all find agreeable. Everyone knows Ulan. Everyone here, at least from what I can see, has had interactions with her and likewise enjoy her friendship and love.

Elf Ulan has been present at most chats this year, both on SantaTrackers.net and SantaUpdate.com. She has asked great questions of nearly every elf who has visited. She has immersed herself in elf life, making her joys of discovery available to us all. She has been fun, gracious and so very kind.

I see for her a great future as an elf. I am grateful for her many contributions.

There were, as there usually are, a number of deserving elves on our lists of finalists. In fact, we have spent the better part of two weeks debating it all. Even Mrs. Claus and myself have talked long hours over your many contributions. Certainly others are worthy of this distinction. In fact, all of you are.

You may not recognize yourselves as ground-breakers, but you ARE. Every. One. Of. You.

You see, 2022 was really our FIRST year of the tracker elf program. Yes, we “tested” it for five years previous and in that time we’ve seen a lot of elves come and go. We even lost a few good elves in 2022.

But you are the ones who overcame. The ones who stayed. The ones that stayed true to the Oath, to the Elf Code, and to the Elf Community. The ones who are serious about giving to others by helping me do what I do.

Those that continue to stay, that continue to grow this community and contribute to it, will be those who become elves of different kinds in the years ahead.

I get asked all the time what it takes to become one of those important elves at the North Pole. It takes time. It takes persistence. And it takes good role models. Elf Ulan is a good one to model yourself after. That is part of the reason why Elf Ulan is Elf of the Year.

Thank you all for your efforts.

In the New Year there will, once again, come many changes. We always work hard to improve. All of us can improve, especially me.

I thank all elves who work on my behalf, who try so hard to help Operation Merry Christmas succeed. Next week, we begin that effort anew. There will be a new countdown, new goals, new targets and new challenges. But the big goal, the one we all aspire to, is to be all the elf we can be by focusing on the love of others.

Thank you, Elf Ulan, for showing us that way.

Santa has taken a good, long nap – as have many others – and now there will be a round of post-Christmas parties to attend.

One of the last of those parties this week will be a North Pole Flight Command.

Once Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived at the North Pole, and the last of the returning sleighs from Operation Airlift came back, North Pole Flight Command shut down the sleigh port. All sleighs have been grounded now and there is no one coming or going at the North Pole. For the first time since last Christmas, there are absolutely no sleighs in the skies.

The crews at Flight Command were then free to return home to their families and were given several days off. It is well deserved.

Between now and the day after New Year’s things are going to be shut down at the North Pole. Santa has called this our week of Celebrating Christmas.

But before the books are closed on Operation Merry Christmas 2022 and before we start to focus on next Christmas there will be some last minute things handled. For those of us here it will be the naming of Elf of the Year.

That will likely be announced on December 31st. It is a job that Santa wants to handle personally.

We look forward to next Christmas. But I do think it is important to celebrate what was accomplished this year. Moving forward is always important. But with Christmas we always honor the past in all that we do.

This was a formative year for SantaTrackers.net and the entire Tracker Elf project. Lessons were learned. Of course we can look forward to some changes.

But before we do all that we need to celebrate where we have come from. We need to value and savor, just a little bit, what was accomplished.

We’re doing that this week and we hope you are too.

So Merry Christmas!

And here’s to the future.

The news of Santa’s alternative sleigh choice for flight this year does not affect tracking Santa at all.

Tracker elves are encouraged to stay focused and to listen closely to direction from their Elf Supervisors. Reporting needs MAY change, based on many factors. Weather, public events and other unscheduled and unanticipated elements can chance when and how trackers report.

But sleighs never do.

Over the past half hour, since the news of Santa’s choice of new sleigh was announced, the North Pole and Flight Command have been flooded with messages of concern for Santa’s flight and choice of vehicle. Some of these messages have come from elves and some have come from fans and believers all over the world.

For tracker elves we admonish you to keep doing what you are doing. We do NOT anticipate further needs at this time. As far as we are concerned, this is a normal flight. We will treat it as such and leave the sleigh decisions to Santa and his experts.

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