Air Traffic Report Requested

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Hi gang!

First of all, thank you for all the kind notes and well wishes. I’m feeling much better. Had just a touch of a weird flu, but doing okay now.

And Happy Operation Merry Christmas! We’re eating a fabulous red cake with white frosting, made by Elf Marky here in the RTC in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada. Marky loves Operation Merry Christmas and always decorates the office here for this day. It’s fun.

Anyway, I got in today to find a strange request from North Pole Flight Command for our sector. They want us to do an Air Traffic Report sometime this weekend.

Frankly, I thought this was a mistake. My thought was that someone up there was thinking it is December 24th, not November 24th. So I called them and sure enough they put this request in today, November 24th. They really DO want us to do an air traffic report.

I’ve never seen them ask for one of these so early. This report is normally to help warn Santa of weird stuff flying around when he’s out and about on Christmas Eve. But that’s not what this specific request is about.

North Pole Flight Command is testing some new experimental radar system that’s run off of cell towers. Weird stuff. It isn’t a system that is going to be ready soon – a couple of years away is what they told me. But they are testing it this weekend in several areas and they want these reports to see if they can trust the results they are getting in their test.

Basically, if you elves send in observation of what you are seeing in the air space where you are they can compare it to what this new system is reporting.

So, let’s help them out, shall we?

If you have never done an air traffic report before, this will be good practice for you. We usually send out a request for one of these on Christmas Eve when Santa is about ready to enter our sector. So doing it now will get you ready for the real deal next month.

I’m just getting back to the office after being out for a few days. But my plan is to review where we are at and to send out an update to you, likely on Monday. I think we’re in good shape but we have SO MANY new elves and I think we might need to re-organize some things come next week.

Thanks all for your help on this one. The air traffic report can be accessed at this link.

 

How to Get Verified

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As a follow-up to my post about Getting Your Elf Profile Right I wanted to share some information about WHY this is important. There are a few good reasons to get this done right away:

  1. This place is crawling with elves. — Elves from North Pole Flight Command come here all the time to match your reports to your profile. They want to “see” your avatar, maybe read your posts, and understand your personality. If your profile is not complete, that can’t happen.
  2. It keeps things tidy. — Santa runs a tight ship. He doesn’t require much, but a complete profile is one of those things.
  3. It gets you verified, which gets you points. — That little check mark next to your name is pretty cool.

Elf Profile

If you can get this done, everything’s cool. You’ll look good and you will move along in your elf career.

If you don’t get it done you risk having your account “retired”. We go quite a while before we take this step. But honestly, elves who cannot get this done after we’ve asked over and over, well, they really don’t seem to be too interested in being elves, right? So if you drag your feet and just plain don’t do it, we will assume you’re not interested in really being an elf and your account will be “retired”.

What does “retired” mean? It means your account goes into lockdown until your profile is right. After a fairly short amount of time on the retired list, your account gets deleted – never to return. Your elf career will be over. You’ll be done. Forever.

Don’t let your account get retired or deleted. That’s no fun for anyone.

To get verified, we look at your profile to see that all the small requirements above are met. If you miss any of them you don’t get verified. If you don’t get verified, you get retired. We try to verify accounts at least once a week. If you feel you meet the requirements and you’ve waited too long to be verified, just PM me or Max. We’ll jump on it as soon as we can.

Any questions? Please ask. We know that some elves are going to need help and we have plenty of other elves here to get you through it. Any elf trying to do this – and struggling – is not going to be retired. We’ll help you get there.

Holiday Weekend Chats

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The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend will feature many events both at the North Pole and online. Lined up are several North Pole elves to chat with tracker elves, believers and fans on North Pole Chat at SantaUpdate.com.

Here is the lineup:

Roger Star Chat

Hugo Chat

Frank and Crash chat

Elf victor Chat

Sector 1 Has a New Lead

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We are excited to announce Elf Lachie as our new Sector Lead for Sector 1.

Elf Lachie has been a dedicated tracker in Sector 1 for several years now. His year round presence, great questioning skills and persistent reporting has been a tremendous asset to us. He is a trusted voice to all trackers, not just in Sector 1.

As Sector 1 Elf Lachie will assist in sharing news within the Sector, helping new elves get up to speed and providing direction in the critical moments of tracking Santa.

We are excited to have his leadership and look forward to working together with Elf Lachie.

Max – can you get Elf Lachie’s profile reflecting this change?

Need More Roof Reports

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Elves of Sector 4 – hola!

In comparing where we are this year to last year, I am happy to report that we have more reporting elves than we did a year ago. However, I also notice that we have fewer roof reports than last year at this time.

We need to fix that.

The roof report is one of the most important that we do for Santa. From your roof reports he learns what he need to know before he gets there.

For those elves in Greenland and South America – please do a roof report soon!

In other news, I’m still looking for a good elf to be our Sector Lead in Sector 4. Please apply!

Gracias!

Claim the City Captain Job

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Any elf can be City Captain for the city, town or village where they live. You just need to claim the job. You can do this at the City Captain Job page.

A City Captain Elf is responsible for representing the geographical operations of the North Pole in the city in which they live.

As such, they may be contacted by the North Pole to assist in leading Operation Merry Christmas for Santa Claus and the North Pole in the months, weeks and days leading up to Christmas.

The City Captain assumes responsibility for local recruiting efforts of new elves and in communicating, training and executing elf operations locally.

Santa would like as many city captains as possible.

As City Captains claim the jobs I will post announcements about once a week between now and Christmas. We will also work with Elf Max to see that points and badges are set up in your profile.

If you have questions please post in the comments below or on the Elf Wall.

Thanks!

Understanding the Countdown

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Do you know what it means to be OCD?

OCD does not mean what some think it means. Some think it means OBSESSIVE CHRISTMAS DISORDER.

That’s cute. But that’s not it.

In the world of elves, OCD means OBSESSIVE CHRISTMAS DATES.

We manifest OCD as an elf through countdowns. And we have a lot of them.

For example, over at SantaUpdate.com you will see on every daily post right now the countdown to Operation Merry Christmas.

Operation Merry Christmas is what we call Santa’s mission. It “officially” begins the day after Thanksgiving.

The truth is that we work on Operation Merry Christmas all year. It actually begins on December 26th.

But why let a little thing like the truth stand in the way of an official countdown, eh?

That’s why we’re obsessed with the dates of Christmas more than anyone else in the world.

There’s one really big thing you need to understand about the only countdown that really matters. It is NOT what the world at large thinks when it comes to counting down to Christmas.

They countdown to Christmas with all kinds of stuff. Advent calendars have been a thing, even in Churches, for centuries. In our age of the Internet entire websites and all kinds of social media posts are made each day marking off just how many days, hours, minutes and seconds remain until Christmas.

But as an elf you gotta understand this: we’re not really interested in the countdown to Christmas of the world.

In fact, if you talk as an elf about the countdown to Christmas you’re kinda sorta making yourself look a little dumb.

We don’t count down to Christmas. We count down to Santa’s launch.

And that’s what we put on all our websites.

In fact, we sometimes get clever people who are not elves who look at our countdown clocks and say, “Hey – you guys are off by a couple of days!”

And they’re right – if we were counting down to Christmas.

But we’re not counting down to Christmas.

We’re counting down to Santa’s launch.

There’s a big difference between Santa’s launch and Christmas, guys.

Why do we do this?

Because we’re elves! Because we work on getting Santa around the world and the ONLY thing that is important is that come December 23rd we get Santa in the air and on his way.

Christmas, frankly, comes only after we have done our jobs as elves.

So please understand this. Watch our clocks. You’re an elf. You need to know this stuff.

Personal Tracker Reports

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Personal Tracker Reports are reports about you. The Elf Supervisors use your submitted information.

As I was in Norway this week dealing a little bit with the situation with Sector 3 Elf Rolf showed me a big wall of pictures of tracker elves. That’s what he does with the Elfie Selfies you send him. He puts it up on his wall and labels each picture with your elf name.

In talking with all the Elf Supervisors this week I learned they all use the information you submit differently. But they all use it.

They also all said we don’t ask often enough to have that information update. So that’s what I’m asking for today.

When you get an opportunity, please send in all three of these reports (they are linked below):

1. Elf Status Report – this tells us your availability. You should update this as your situation changes between now and Christmas.

2. Elfie Selfie – this is a picture of you, hopefully in front of your Christmas tree, your Santa tracking map or at your home tracking center. The Elf Supervisors LOVE these pictures. Make sure your parents/guardians/wife/mother/significant other are okay with this.

3. Home and Family Report – this is a report shared with Santa, out of concern for all you live with.

None of these are **required**. But it sure is nice to have them.

Ask any questions you have in the comments below.

Thanks!

Sector 3 HQ in Iceland Suspends Operations

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After consultation with Icelandic authorities and after meeting with a senior team of elves in North Pole Flight Command, Santa Claus today authorized the suspension of operations at the Regional Tracking Center located in Vik, Iceland.

The move comes out of “an abundance of caution” due to recent volcanic and earthquake activity in Iceland.

For more information of the changing situation in Iceland surround this natural event, please see this link: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/iceland-evacuees-brace-volcanic-eruption-2023-11-13/

“We are not and have not been in any danger,” said Operations Director for the Vik facility, Elf Gretchen Green. “The government of Iceland still wants us here and hopefully the situation will stabilize before Christmas so that operations can return to Vik.”

The Regional Tracking Center in Vik, Iceland coordinates flight operations for Santa, collects tracker reports, weather information and other vital data used in Santa’s flights for all of Sector, which covers all of Europe and Africa.

Elf Roger Star, Director of North Pole Flight Command, outlined the plan that will take place over the next five days:

1. Elf Supervisor Rolf Jannsen and his senior operations team will move to a temporary location set up in Renn, Norway. Support teams from Flight Command are assisting Rolf to be operational by Saturday, November 19th.

2. Some elf specialists from the Vik team have been temporarily re-assigned to the Regional Tracking Centers for Sector 4, in San Nicolas, Aruba and for Sector 5, in Cold Lake Canada. They will continue their work, mostly related to multi-lingual operations, reporting and data analysis, until the Norway facility is fully open for business.

3. Elf Supervisors in Sector 4 and Sector 5 – namely, Elf Tubby Ryder and Elf Pinky Yates – will assume communication and operations authority while Elf Rolf gets the Norway Facility open.

4. The SS Donner, a support vessel of the North Pole Navy, will stay anchored between Iceland and Norway to assist with communications and logistics.

5. A small dedicated team will remain in Vik to secure the facility and to run minimal operations. If ordered to evacuate by local authorities they are equipped to do so quickly and safely.

All of these operations are being coordinated to keep Tracker Elves in Sector 3 working.

“We believe Tracker Elves can continue reporting, whether they are freelance or remote North Pole elves, without interruption,” said International Director of Santa Trackers, Elf Crash Murphy. “In fact, it is critical that they do not stop reporting. We need weather reports ongoing. With winter quickly settling in up North, chimney inspections are crucial. Test flights for Santa’s sleigh are headed for Europe soon and we need eyes on the skies. We appreciate all Santa, Elf Roger Star, North Pole Flight Command and the North Pole Navy are doing to keep us rolling.”

Tracker Elves, especially in Sector 3, are encouraged to keep a very close eye on Sector news pages and Elf Wall announcements from any of the Elf Supervisors for at the least the next five days.

This is a developing story, with updates soon coming to NorthPoleFlightCommand.com, SantaUpdate.com and SantaTrackers.net

If I Were a Brand New Elf

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Howdy to all our new tracker elves.

My name is Elf Crash Murphy, just in case you didn’t know. I have two main jobs as an elf. First, I’m a North Pole Radio News elf and my assignment every year is to follow behind Santa in a sleigh and report on the radio whatever I see happening as Santa flies and delivers. I’ve done this for many, many years.

Second, I’m the International Director of Santa Trackers and I’m new in the job. So I understand what it feels like to be the new elf.

I recently had a conversation with a brand new elf who was confused and had a lot of questions. It made me think back to when I was a brand new elf working for Santa.

So, I thought it would be best today to share with you my thoughts about what you need to do as a brand new elf. In fact, I may just make a podcast with my radio partner, Elf Frank Myrrh, to talk about this some more.

Anyway, here’s what you should do step-by-step if you are a brand new elf:

1. Relax. Elf life is fun and if you can’t have fun, you can’t be an elf. You’re not going to learn how to do this in one day or even one Christmas. So chill.

2. Forget about going to the North Pole and riding in Santa’s sleigh. Yes, it could maybe possibly in a billion years could sorta might happen perhaps. But you shouldn’t make that what you think about all the time. There is a lot to learn before you get to that level.

3. You only need to know 50 billion things, even as a tracker elf. So get used to the idea of coming to the website, reading like a mad scientist, talking to other elves, and figuring out how to be an elf in you real life. It all takes time.

4. Go to Elf University and study.

5. If you have questions, go to the Elf Wall and ask them. As elves we all help each other.

6. Listen to every podcast ever made both here at SantaTrackers.net and at SantaUpdate.com

7. Listen to Kringle Radio. Everyday.

8. Drink eggnog. Everyday.

9. Come to the websites: SantaTrackers.net, SantaUpdate.com and NorthPoleFlightCommand.com as often as you can. Especially when it is not Christmas. We are here year round and stuff happens year round that affect us when we track Santa.

10. Know your sector. Knowing where you are on the map is important because you have an Elf Supervisor in your sector who tells you what North Pole Flight Command needs from us. If you don’t know all this you can’t help Santa.

Does this help?

I dunno. I know many elves get here and they see how much it takes to learn and they give up.

Just don’t give up. It’s those elves who don’t give up that actually make it to the North Pole and get to ride in a sleigh (like me).

Local Christmas Report Needed

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Good afternoon, elves of Sector 3!

First of all, we have been fielding some questions about the earthquakes and volcanic activity near to us at the Regional Tracking Center here in Vik, Iceland.

I want to assure you that we are safe. Elf Roger Star of North Pole Flight Command dispatch a team of specialists and emergency personnel to monitor the situation since it became apparent earlier this week that a major event is happening in Iceland. So far, the Regional Tracking Center here remains operational. If a need to move comes the decision will be made under the direction of local government. We are ready for anything that might happen.

In the meantime, we remain hard at work in preparing for Santa’s flight in our Sector.

We have been asked by North Pole Flight Command – sector-wide, so all of Europe and Africa – to send in a current Local Christmas Report as soon as possible (within 10 days).

This is not an unusual request and it likely will not be the last time it will be requested of us.

Also, we have been informed that the test flights of Santa’s sleigh will be over our sector some time later this month. I don’t know dates yet but will let you know when I know.

Thank you!

Special Instructions for All Trackers

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Hello, Trackers – Crash here.

I wanted to give you an update on some things and to provide some instruction of things we can be doing between now and Thanksgiving.

1. Elf Chat with Santa – the chat with Santa and I will be held Saturday at 11am EST in Elf Chat at SantaTrackers.net. It is important that you remember what this chat is for: it’s for elf business. It’s for tracking Santa for Santa. It’s NOT for asking Santa for things for Christmas or about his favorite cookies or about why you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas. We need to all be ready to talk about our jobs as elves, what Santa needs for his flight and exactly what is most important about Tracking Santa for Santa this year. That being said, I don’t want you to be shy in asking questions. But ask about stuff in your elf life, not your normal life.

2. Roof Reports – We’ve talked about this before but I just wanted to remind you. One of our most basic tracker reports is the roof report. Elf Roger at North Pole Flight Command tells us the time in getting short and we need to get these in as soon as possible. Report on roofs that you can see all around you. Only do it from the ground. Take pictures if you can. Be as thorough as possible. Be prepared if someone from North Pole Flight Command contacts you to ask questions.

3. Account Activity – Elf Moe and team are doing a great job making sure only North Pole Elves are on SantaTrackers.net community features such as the Elf Wall. They’ve got a mandate from Santa. If you’re new, get your profile and Elf name in line. There are lots of elves around to help you. Inactive accounts are getting deleted all the time. By this point in the year you should be logging in at least once a week, if not more. If you don’t your account could be deleted.

4. City Captains – I am pleased to announce a new process for those wanting to be a City Captain. To be a City Captain all you will need to do going forward is to claim it for the city or town you live in. Elf Sandy will soon be posting a new form that will allow you to do it. Elf Resources will check to make sure nobody else has already claimed it, but this move should more or less clear up the log jam for this elf job.

5. Other Elf Jobs – we want to fill the Country and State/Province Representative positions right away. Please apply if interested.

Between now and Thanksgiving there may not be a lot of instruction coming from me or the Supes. That’s by design. After Thanksgiving is a different story.

Please check in often, elves.

Thank you.