Stocking Mail is NOT for Tracking

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At some point in the upcoming weeks there will be a conversation over at SantaUpdate.com about Stocking Mail. It usually generates confusion.

Unfortunately that confusion starts here in the tracker elf community.

So we wanted to put something out about it now so that mistakes can be avoided in the weeks ahead.

The North Pole Post Office is charged with getting Santa his mail, no matter where he is and no matter what date, time or place it may be.

Most of the time that is best handled online. Yes, many still write hand-written letters. But as time and technology has advanced messaging for Santa comes in many forms: texts, emails, messages, faxes, etc.

Several years ago the North Pole Research and Development Department invented a ground-breaking new messaging system we call Stocking Mail. When implemented the system uses a Christmas stocking as kind of a portal. If a note is put in the stocking at the right time when the system is engaged that message gets transmitted to the North Pole Post Office and thus to Santa.

Pretty cool, right?

Well, here’s what you need to understand about it.

  1. It’s not perfect. It can only handle paper. If things are written on plastic or cloth or something else it doesn’t work. Some have tried to send Santa other things via stocking mail, like cookies or food for the reindeer. That stuff doesn’t work either. In fact it all gums up the system.
  2. It only works when the system is turned on. Turning it on is a complex process that requires special facilities, lots of technical equipment and thousands of elves. For the reason, it only gets turned on for a brief period of time each year. Usually, when Elf Hugo contacts Santa to say that time or other resources are running low to keep other messaging options flowing, that is when Stocking Mail is activated. It does not get activated until and unless Santa approves it.
  3. Stocking Mail is NOT for transmitting any kind of information except messages for Santa. It could be a wish list or some sort of note for Santa – but that’s it. It is NOT for sending tracking information for Flight Command. Don’t do it. They will never see it. You must communicate with North Pole Flight Command as directed at SantaTrackers.net.

We want all tracker elves to know and understand the proper use of Stocking Mail. You should be prepared to explain it to “normies” out there when it is activated come December 23rd and December 24th.

Of course, the News Department at the North Pole will do their part in trying to communicate how it all works. But you know that people don’t read everything we put out. Sometimes you just have to tell them.

Stocking Mail is most useful for the little ones. They will frequently change their minds about what they want for Christmas. Or, they will remember something at the last minute that they just want Santa to know. This is why Stocking Mail was invented.

If properly used and implemented, Stocking Mail will transmit information to Santa from any stocking anywhere in the world directly to him, even while he is on the sleigh. Frequently, Stocking Mail isn’t even utilized until Santa has taken off from the North Pole.

Have questions? As them here, in the comments below or on the Elf Wall. We want everyone to understand this.

Local Christmas Report Needed

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Good evening, Sector 1 Elves!

North Pole Flight Command has passed along the news that Santa would like a fresh Local Christmas Report from Sector 1, especially for areas of Australia and New Zealand.  There are concerns that maybe the Christmas spirit is weak in those countries.

I think this is the first time they have asked us for this information so far this year. I also hear there might be some concerns brewing in Japan, Guam and also Samoa. I’ll keep you posted on that.

In looking at our general reports overall, we’re up by about 3% – which isn’t bad for this time of the season. We are seeing an upsurge in new elf sign-ups in our sectors and it usually takes a few days for them to get reports flowing.

But so far, so good this year.

Also be aware that Flight Command has told us the test flights are coming to our sector in the next few days. I’m not sure where. But eyes up! If we can get in a few sleigh sighting reports, that would be AWESOME.

Thanks!

New Sector Lead

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We are so very pleased and excited to announce that we now have a new lead elf in Sector 3 – Elf Frosty McSnowflake!

Elf Frosty in just three years as a tracker has been elevated to this position thanks to an ever present effort, a cheerful disposition and helpful abilities with elves of all types.

A Sector Lead elf functions as a leader in the sector. As lead Elf Frosty will share news, train new elves, and advise the Elf Supervisor in times of need. Occasionally it may be necessary for the Sector Lead to help recruit new elves, to advise Flight Command and to communicate critical and urgent issues to other elves.

Elf Frosty will also automatically be joined to the group of Senior Elves who work to keep the Elf Community on Santa Trackers.net on track.

We are grateful for Elf Frosty McSnowflake’s example and willingness to serve!

 

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