As you are likely well aware by now, Mrs. Claus has introduced an effort to find Santa. Our department is included in this effort.

What follows are some brief points for you to remember as we get this effort organized. I’m not a news-writer and certainly not much of a memo-maker, but I’ll do my best here to be clear.

But, just to save time and frustration, it has already been posted that I’ll be working on a new podcast with Frank in the next few days and I want your questions. The questions we have received so far are very good. But let’s not hold back – I want to make sure we are all together on this thing as much as possible. So keep those questions coming.

The first thing I want you all to be aware of is that what we’re engaged with here is quite different from the tracking of Santa that we usually do. We don’t track Santa usually to find him – we track him to follow him.

So what we are doing now is very different.

It is also a lot harder to do.

So let’s be clear about what we’re doing and how we are going to do it:

1. We are trying to find someone who does not want to be found. That means we need to be looking.

2. Looking means we are eyes-up at all times. If we see something – anything – say something! If you see any kind of clue that might be helpful, you need to report it.

3. Someone asked what we would say to Santa if we spotted him. That’s a great question and I’ll answer it. But before I do, I want you to remember that you will not see Santa anywhere in the world right now wearing red, sporting a long white beard and driving a sleigh. He’s on foot. If he has a beard, it’s kinda short right now because he shaved it off before he left. And he’s definitely not wearing red. Santa will NOT appear as Santa right now and that’s on purpose. But a good elf could spot Santa even if he doesn’t look like himself. And if you think you do spot Santa and can talk to him, simply ask him, “So, how’s Operation Merry Christmas going?”. Santa will answer that question every time. I know we talk about Operation Merry Christmas all the time but the average person out there doesn’t talk about it everyday like we do and would hardly understand that question if it were asked. If you ask that question of someone who is not Santa they are going to say something like “Excuse me? Are you talking to me?”. You’ll know right away whether or not you’re talking to Santa.

4. Many reports we have already received attach a photo or even a phone video showing men who might be Santa from a distance. That’s okay. Even if it proves NOT to be Santa we appreciate getting such reports, images and video. Send them in, post them up on the Elf Wall or whatever. Just send it up the line.

We are working with Elf Max to get a new reporting form set up for you to share information, pictures and videos. It should be up in a few days.

There are meetings I am attending at the North Pole. I am learning more about what other departments are doing and what they think we can do as tracker elves to help with finding Santa.

As I get more information, I will share it with you via news reports or podcasts with Frank or officially through news posts like this one here on SantaTrackers.net.

Finally, I want you to know that this project is going to take us some time. Santa didn’t set this thing up for him to lose. He’ll be almost impossible to live with if we don’t find him so I can guarantee you he’s going to make this as hard on us as possible. This will not be easy.

I will be attending a briefing given by Elf Agent X in North Pole Security that I hope gives us some new information about where Santa MIGHT be. I think working with other departments and working together we stand the best chance of finding Santa eventually.

I thank you for your patience and I especially thank you for your attention at this time of the year when many are not thinking much about Santa and Christmas.