Reporting Plan for Sector 4

Greetings from Christmas Island in Jamaica!

Finally I can announce a reporting plan in our lead up to Santa’s launch. Our sector is so unique that we need to do it two ways: a plan for South America and most of the Atlantic, and another plan for Greenland and the North Atlantic.

First, for everyone in the Sector:

Weather reports: All elves in the sector going forward should send in a weather report each Tuesday from now until December. It will likely change then.

Second, for South America, the Caribbean, and south of the equator in the Atlantic:

Roof Report: It’s Hurricane season, so be careful. We want to get these reports done by the end of September.
Local Christmas Report: Every week on Saturday between now and Halloween. Special request from Santa for some reason.

Third, for Greenland and north of the equator in the Atlantic:

Chimney Inspections: Watch weather conditions, be safe. We have time to get these done but the sooner the better.
Public Observation: This is different than a Local Christmas Report. Another special request from Santa. We need this about every two weeks going forward, your choice of what day of the week.

This is all we need unless the test flights of Santa’s sleigh come back into our sector soon, which I have not heard about.

We’re keeping it simple this year. Be sure to check in at least once a week for breaking news.

Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Test Flights Over Sector 4

Hola from Christmas Island in Jamaica!

North Pole Flight Command has confirmed that the test flights will be over our sector this week. While much of the time the flights are expected to be over the Atlantic and possible sleigh sightings will only happen for the ships at sea we can expect to see flights over both Greenland and South America. So keep your eyes peeled!

I am actively looking for a new sector lead. We are looking for someone with experience communicating in both English and Spanish. You need to be Internet savvy and active on social media channels as well.

I do not have any required reports of elves yet in our sector. But sit tight. We’re working on a plan and will be putting you to work soon.

Trackers Invited to Toyvember

As you may have heard, Santa declared a very rare Toyvember event – right in the middle of Christmas in July. That’s never been done before.

Naturally, elves all over the world had questions about how that would work for them, including tracker elves in every sector. I finally have some answers for you.

Yes, all trackers, regardless of location or status – freelance, junior trackers, North Pole elves – are all invited to participate.

If you have a toy idea, design or prototype you are encouraged to submit them via a message to your Elf Supervisor.

Please keep your eye on the news. I have a feeling this Toyvember will not last long. I would encourage you to submit your toy invention as soon as you can.

Thanks.

Sector Lead Position Changes

The elf job of Sector Lead is evolving. It will now require added duties, as listed at the job description found on this page.

Due to the changes in the position, I have decided to release all existing Sector Leads from their positions. They are welcome to re-apply and would be strongly considered if they are willing to take up the new duties as listed in the job description.

What is different about this position?

After long discussions with the Elf Supervisors, it was decided that Sector Leads need to have a more visible presences both on SantaTrackers.net and on social media channels. Sector Leads will be given more responsibility in both recruiting and news outreach efforts. This will require a lot more time and certainly a lot effort. That was a key reason why I chose to release those currently in the position.

The job has just changed.

The Elf Supervisors not only ask for a voice in recruiting for this position but also an ability to tailor the job to their own needs in each sector. I support this request. A Sector Lead in one sector will need to adapt to the needs of that sector through communication with the Elf Supervisor.

Please note that while the job description says a Sector Lead needs to be a North Pole Elf with a presence on SantaTrackers.net I will be flexible in that requirement in sectors where access and language make finding qualified candidates difficult (looking at you Sector 2). I will consider the possibility of a strong freelance elf candidate (or two).

If you are freelance elf with interest and qualifications in the Sector Lead position, please reach out via a standard freelance tracker report submission or via the support page here at SantaTrackers.net

If you have questions please feel free to ask them below or on the Elf Wall.

All Regional Tracking Centers Announced

North Pole Flight Command announced the location of the final regional tracking center today. Here are the locations for Christmas 2025 by Sector:

Sector 1: Christmas Island, Tanzania, Australia
Sector 2: Christmas Island, Myanmar
Sector 3: Christmas Island, Zimbabwe
Sector 4: Christmas Island, Jamaica
Sector 5: Christmas Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

As of today, Friday, July 18th, it is believed that the centers in Sectors 2, 4 and 5 are just about ready. By this time next week ALL should be online, well ahead of the August 1st target date set by Santa.

Each Elf Supervisor will be posting when they are “officially” open with their first instructions of the season. We expect those to begin at any time.

Meanwhile, the test flights of Santa’s sleigh continue and appear to be heading west over Sector 3 at this time. North Pole Flight Command has not published the flight schedule but they intend to inform us of their plans soon seeing that the Regional Tracking Centers are coming online.

Messaging Your Elf Supervisor

Today we have added a new report to the library of reports offered here on SantaTrackers.net. Elf Max has restructured the library pages and added a new report to the Personal Reports library titled “Message Your Elf Supervisor”.

This new report was born out of concern for the many new Junior Tracker Elves coming on board this year.

Their job in their first six months as an elf is to try to get promoted to North Pole Elf status and join the Elf Community. To do that, they need to become known to their elf supervisors.

One way to do that is via the tracker reports that our Elf Supervisors ask you all to provide.

But because Junior Elves are NOT part of the Elf Community there is no direct way for them to reach out to their Elf Supervisor. Furthermore, privacy laws prevent two-way communication outside of the regulated environment of the community.

As Elf Moe, Santa and myself discussed this challenge we determined the best way to do this was to implement this new report that will allow any elf to send a message directly to the Elf Supervisor.

This is a good idea for our North Pole Elves of the community as well. The Elf Community is accessible to our Elf Supervisors but they get very busy and rarely have time to check messages.

This new report operates via channels controlled by the North Pole Post Office and flows through regular reporting protocols. In other words, when you use this NEW REPORT your message gets routed like a report – and it gets straight to your Elf Supervisor right away.

(Every report that comes in requires action in the Regional Tracking Center that receives it. Elves working in the Regional Center tag the report, send it to the teams who assess that information. When necessary, follow up actions are added or the information is filed for use for when Santa flies to the area you are reporting from. Making a message for your supervisor thus means it goes into a queue where they HAVE to read it and act on it).

Even though your Elf Supervisor cannot reply to you in these messages they can still see what you have to say and then choose whether or not to post something on SantaTrackers.net publicly in response to it.

As we get more and more of our Regional Tracking Centers announced the likelihood of report requests will be increasing. In fact, you should expect a first request from your Elf Supervisor anytime within the next week.

We encourage you to learn about and use this new report.

Note to Freelance Elves: this new report is not available to you. We encourage you to reach out to your Elf Supervisor via the standard freelance elf report.

Jamaica Chosen for Regional Tracking Center

North Pole Flight Command has announced that Christmas Island, Jamaica will be home to the Regional Tracking Center for Sector 4:

Christmas Island, Jamaica

 

Elf Tubby Ryder and his team of elves from the North Pole are expected to get the new regional center operating very quickly.

This is the 2nd time in recent years that a regional center has been located in the Caribbean. Elf Supervisor Tubby was instrumental in the site selection process and said the favorable December weather as well as the location that is central to the sector were major factors in the decision.

“Many people do not realize how vast the space is that we have to cover and how diverse that space is,” Elf Tubby says. “We have millions upon millions of believers in South America to the south but all the way up north in Greenland there are relatively few numbers of people. Then we have the island nations of the sea, much like Sector 1 in the Pacific only ours are in the areas of the Atlantic. Tiny island nations with lots of people. Plus the open waters of the Atlantic where there are major shipping lanes and ships at sea – they all have to be visited by Santa. Our work is spread far and wide. Jamaica is central it all and we need a place where weather is good to provide steady support for Santa.”

Elf Tubby also acknowledged the dependence of his team on support from the North Pole Navy. He notes that two ships of the North Pole Navy customarily patrol the waters of Sector 4 in support of flight operations.

Elf Tubby expects to be sending instructions to tracker elves from the new Regional Tracking Center in Jamaica in about a week.

Test Flights Have Resumed

Many of you have been asking. We are pleased to announce that the test flights of Santa’s sleigh have resumed after a few unexpected delays.

The tracking map is now live on SantaTrackers.net only and only for registered elves.

We expect updates at least once daily.

Flight Command is working on an update to address the status of Santa’s sleigh and the anticipated flight path over the next several weeks.

 

Elf Supervisors to Meet

The Elf Supervisors will meet beginning this Friday and into the weekend as they work to schedule events for the upcoming tracking season.

They will first receive training on the new website here at SantaTrackers.net. Once that training is complete we expect to see them posting news in short order.

They are also discussing elf recruiting goals, the status of Santa’s sleigh, new technologies to be used in flying Santa around the world this year and updates from Flight Command about what information will be needed to track Santa for Santa.

There are rumors going about of a North Pole Chat to be held with all the Elf Supervisors at the same time. We don’t know if that is going to happen or when but we will keep you posted.

Status Update on Operation Merry Christmas

Hi Trackers, with Leon Day upon us we mark the second half of the year – and that means we have a lot of work to do.

With the work of Elf Max and team mostly complete you will begin to see an uptick in the news and direction coming from the Elf Supervisors.

To catch you up, each Sector has been working hard to identify locations for the Regional Tracking Centers this year. I am pleased to announce that those decisions have been made and that officials from the North Pole are finalizing contracts right now.

We anticipate announcing those locations one by one over the next few weeks.

The target opening dates for each sector will vary slightly. Some will open we hope by around the middle of July. ALL will be open by July 21st.

I know there is some question, if not controversy, about Santa’s sleigh. I urge you to be patient while that news comes out in the weeks ahead. I don’t know yet when the tracking map for the test flights will be available. I can tell you the primary reason you don’t have that information right now is due to security concerns. That is about as much as I can say about it at the moment. We anticipate Santa himself will likely share news updates on the new sleigh during Christmas in July.

Speaking of Santa and Christmas in July, we have been asked about chats that might be made available. We’re working on that right now and Elf Winslow will be posting up a new schedule soon.

With the changes in the website some are asking if we will be pushing to get new elves signed up this year. The short answer is yes. More details on that coming soon.

As part of Leon Day and Christmas in July you can expect some North Pole Radio News reports from me and Elf Frank Myrrh. We’re anxious to catch you all up on everything.

See you on the radio!

Changes to Elf Membership Levels

We are pleased to announce some enhancements to the Tracker Elf program in advance of the Christmas 2025 tracking season. These enhancements have been included in a recent overhaul of the SantaTrackers.net website, which you have no doubt noticed.

After hours of discussion with Santa, and hearing your feedback as asked for in my last post on May 5th, we present the following changes:

1. New elf registrations at SantaTrackers.net will be set as “Junior Tracker Elf”. This will give new elves a chance to learn the art of Tracking Santa for Santa. If after six months at that level and successful in their efforts, their Elf Supervisor may extend to them an invite to join the Elf Community as a North Pole Tracker elf.

2. The existing community of tracker elves – now known as North Pole Tracker Elves – remains a small and dedicated group. All accounts previously inactive since January 1, 2025, have been removed. If you had an account used before that date, but not since, you will need to re-apply as an elf to begin again as a Junior Tracker Elf.

3. The freelance elf community remains unchanged. Freelancers who choose not to participate in the Elf Community or to become a North Pole Elf can continue to track Santa for Santa without having a login in for SantaTrackers.net. As with others who track Santa for Santa, they can read instruction from their Elf Supervisor and submit reports that aid Santa. But as before they will not be able to participate in the Elf Community or advance to a North Pole Elf experience.

Santa and the North Pole support team of SantaTrackers.net remain committed to providing a free and orderly community for believers out there with a desire to become an elf at the North Pole.

The Internet presents challenges in maintaining such an online experience. We believe these new changes will improve that experience to ensure our ongoing operation.

These changes, as well as other updates to the SantaTrackers.net website, are effective immediately. Having completed them we can now move forward with the business of tracking Santa for Santa 2025.

Elf Crash Murphy and the Elf Supervisors, as well as the North Pole News Department, will from this point forward, resume their duties at SantaTrackers.net.

We welcome your comments and questions below. Our thanks go out to you for your patience and to Elf Max and his team of web experts for their good work in implementing these changes.

Thank you.

New Podcast Episode

In a joint episode of the North Pole Podcast and the Santa Trackers Podcast Elves Frank and Crash discuss the start of Operation Merry Christmas 2025.