Introducing the Santa Tracker Podcast

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Friends,

A big day just got bigger. Mark Leon Day 2021 as the day that the Santa Trackers Podcast officially launched. Just posted by Elf Frank Myrrh is the first episode which features both Elf Lil Cream and Elf Crash Murphy.

I can tell you that behind the scenes a lot of work has gone into this project. It is only going to get bigger over time, too.

The intent of this podcast is to showcase our Santa Tracker elves. The introductory episode does a nice job giving you just a taste of that with Elf Lil Cream’s featurette. She is, as you know, the host of A Creamy Christmas Podcast. But this episode explains a little bit about the inspiration for the whole Santa Tracker elf program that Santa launched five years ago.

We hope this adds a little joy to your Leon Day and that you plan to tune in going forward as we share more and more about Santa Tracker elves.

Leon Day Offers a Chat for Elves

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Hi elves!

Elf Ivy Holley here. I just wanted to remind you guys that today is Leon Day. It is the halfway mark to Christmas and it is something of a big deal at the North Pole. I’m sure you’ve already read all about it over at SantaUpdate.com.

Well there’s something else going on today — it’s a chat with Elf Crash Murphy! You know Crash. Or at least I hope you know Crash. He’s a big guy in the Santa Tracker movement and you need to get to know him. For Leon Day Crash agreed to come do a chat and I think you should let all your friends and family know about it. Especially those who are NOT elves yet. It is a good way to slowly introduce them to the idea of becoming an elf.

Elf Crash is a straight talker. He’s kinda funny but always honest about Santa, tracking Santa and the North Pole. He’s got a cool story. And his chats are always entertaining. So you should come and invite as many others as you can.

Now, we know it’s Friday night. We know it is summer time for some of you, winter for others. And that means different stuff. But it will be held over in the North Pole Chat Room at SantaUpdate.com at 7:30pm EST. This chat was added to the calendar only a week or so ago.

If you do one thing to celebrate Leon Day come chat with Elf Crash!

Tracking Santa on the Radio

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It has come to the attention of the Public Relations Department at the North Pole that some elves are not familiar with North Pole Radio News and the work they do in tracking Santa around the world.

Well, watch this first:

We present this information in advance of sharing the first episode of the Santa Trackers Podcast – which is coming out at any moment.

You will also soon hear of a Christmas-in-July opportunity to hear the North Pole radio news broadcast from last Christmas – if you weren’t around the hear it on Christmas Eve. It’s very exciting.

We will be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Santa Tracker Herald Star Now Online

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The Santa Tracker Herald Star is now online. It is a news publication by elves about elves for elves.

It includes North Pole specific information normally reserved for elves living at the North Pole. Select features are shared with the North Pole Gazette, the hometown newspaper for North Pole Village that has published for close to 200 years. You must be a logged in user of SantaTrackers.net to access this special feature.

The North Pole is going to great lengths this year to share more news than ever before. The Santa Tracker Herald Star is a major part of that effort.

From this publication you will learn details about the North Pole effort never shared before. Developments from Santa’s Research and Development Department, flight plans from North Pole Flight Command, community news and events, and the stuff of elf culture (advice and gossip) will all be shared. It does not contain everything as available at the North Pole but it contains a lot!

What we think will make this really special is the stuff we will be sharing about you, our Santa tracker elves all over the world. Our readers at the North Pole are excited to learn more about you. That’s part of what we do this – to embed you in the North Pole and the North Pole in you.

A lot of elves are working this project. Some you may already know. Others you will get to know. Their stories are coming day-by-day. We hope you enjoy and contribute.

Official Elf Count Update

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Hello Trackers! My name is Elf Flip. I am an accountant at North Pole Flight Command and I am charged with keeping count of tracker elves in each sector. I am here to give you an update on the total number of elves we have tracking Santa for Santa.

After seasonal adjustments, the total number of registered freelance and North Pole contracted elves working as Santa Trackers tracking Santa for Santa is 54.8 million, down from a peak recorded last Christmas Eve of 56.7 million.

Seeing that Santa has not yet announced the recruiting goal for Christmas 2021, we cannot effectively communicate what our anticipated needs will be. We expect Santa will make that announcement soon.

Here is the breakdown by sector, rough estimates at this time:

Sector 1 – 7.1 million
Sector 2 – 3.0 million
Sector 3 – 16.5 million
Sector 4 – 11.3 million
Sector 5 – 16.9 million

I will be providing periodic updates, as directed by Flight Command. Your elf supervisor may update you as well about the elf count by sector.

 

Preparing for Leon Day

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Hello Elves!

As you may have read at SantaUpdate.com we are soon to celebrate Leon Day, the half-way point to Christmas. It is just a week away.

While we celebrate the day with silly things here at the North Pole it is not necessary that you do the same. At the North Pole elves wear their clothes backwards and talk backwards. It is not necessary for you to do that where you are. You can, if you want. But it is not required.

Despite the goofiness of the day it still remains a work day at the North Pole. The workshop does not stop working for Leon Day. The test flights of Santa’s sleigh continue. Everything operates normally…well, as normal as can be with backwards elves.

What Leon Day means for the serious tracker elf is that the news gets much busier. Being more than half way just means we get busier.

So it’s a signal for you. Things are happening and happening quickly. Be sharp.

Tracker Map Opens for Elf Training

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North Pole Flight Command announced yesterday that the Santa Tracker Map will be opened exclusively here on SantaTrackers.net. We are pleased to announce that as of this morning the map is live and available at this link.

Please note that while the map is now open there is not year much flight activity to show you. The North Pole Navy has repositioned to the North Atlantic and a limited number of flights are going out over the water.

We have it on good authority they will be test flying the sleigh first in Sector 3 and that those flights are scheduled to begin just after Leon Day. So, for the next week or so, you should only expect to see the test flights over the waters of the Atlantic and it may not in fact move very much.

What’s going on?

Well, the reindeer have all been selected. All of them are working a schedule getting exercise, food and even a few shots to fight against tropical diseases. They are being conditioned for a very heavy flight schedule in the months ahead.

The sleighs themselves are nearly flight-ready. There are 12 of them. They are being washed and waxed. Some are being loaded with weights. Others are being installed with special tracking equipment. No two sleighs are alike in how they are outfitted.

The test pilots are in flight school. They are receiving simulator training. Some are already reviewing their flight mission notes with assigned locations and test procedures they must follow.

Some sleighs are being flight tested over the water for the next week or so. I’m not sure the nature of those flights but they are very limited. Some of those flights are just to get the reindeer used to being used with this model of the sleigh.

And no – Santa will not be involved in the test flights. He rarely is at this point in the season.

We will keep you posted. And you can now keep your eye on  the map.

Conference Agenda Released

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Hello elves! No sooner did the big Tracker Elf Conference get announced then a meeting was held today to set it all up. As a result, you can now see the conference agenda.

We are releasing this a month in advance so that you can prepare. How do you do that?

1. Review all tracker elf training materials and make a list of questions.
2. Match your questions to the presentation where you think it will best fit. (Although any of our experts will be glad to take any question you have).

Each presentation at the conference will be about 10-15 minutes long. The remaining time after each speaker is meant for you to ask questions. That open discussion is where most elves learn the most stuff.

It is very important that you ask questions at the conference. We want every elf to be aware and to understand.

Also be looking for LOTS of new training material to be introduced around the time of the Conference. We have elves working on that stuff now and we will begin releasing new training information around the 10th of July this year, just in advance of the Conference.

Tracker Elf Conference in July

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A Tracker Elf Conference has been scheduled as part of Christmas in July at the North Pole.

The event will be held this time in Elf Chat right here on SantaTrackers.net on July 17th between 12pm EST and 3pm EST. An event schedule will be released in the weeks ahead.

A Tracker Elf Conference is a meeting of tracker elves who track Santa for Santa. It is a live chat event that presents training and flight information for tracker elves. Last year the first Tracker Elf Conference was held in the weeks just before Santa launched.

“We’re doing a Tracker Elf Conference as part of Christmas in July for many reasons,” said Elf Roger Star, International Director of Santa Tracking. “We feel this is a good use of time as part of Christmas in July but more importantly we feel it will give tracker elves a better opportunity to ask questions they have and get them answered by elves in the know.”

The timing of this meeting is curious because the recruiting effort for new elves for 2021 has really just started. We believe millions of more elves will come on board after the Tracker Elf Conference and before Santa flies again.

I asked Elf Roger if that meant a 2nd Tracker Elf Conference would be scheduled closer to Christmas and his answer was “we’ll see”.

Put this one on your calendar, elves.

As we get more information about it I will, of course, share.

Sector 3 Will See First Test Flights

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Greetings Elves of Europe and Africa,

As Elf Max shared with us the other day, we will be able to track test flights of Santa’s sleigh exclusively here on SantaTrackers.net this year. We do not yet know when those exactly will begin. However, I just learned today that the first flights will take place in Sector 3 – we’re first!

This is an outstanding opportunity for us in Sector 3 to get a jumpstart on our training.

I encourage all elves in our Sector to pay attention. Some of you may even want to watch the skies for possible test flight sightings in the weeks ahead.

Once I know more of the dates for these flights, I will let you know.

Exclusive Tracking of Test Flights

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Greetings, Elves!

We have received some important news today from North Pole Flight Command. The tracking of the test flights of Santa’s Sleigh will be available exclusively right here on SantaTrackers.net and it will be made available for Tracking Elves alone for training purposes.

Flight Command has not yet said WHEN the map will be activated but it is expected to be very soon – like within just a few days.

Santa’s sleigh has so far only seen very limited testing. According to flight command the sleigh design was approved by Santa weeks ago and the first prototype models have been built. Reindeer from Santa’s ranches around the world have been summoned and flight teams are being assembled now.

But the schedule of test flights is still underdevelopment as of this report. We should know soon, I’m being told, from the team at Flight Command.

This is all new territory for us. Usually test flights of Santa’s sleigh do not get underway until August at the earliest. That has all changed this year for some reason.

The tracking of those flights have never been open before beyond the North Pole. So to get it now will be a real aid to new tracker elves who do not know what the map looks like.

We are told that test flights, at least at first, will be focused on certain sectors  a week at a time. That information is also new as it has not been the practice of Flight Command to reveal the strategy behind test flight locations.

This information will prove useful to tracker elves who want to plan their use of the tracking data.

As I get more information, I will share it with you.

Elf Recruiting Starts Up

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Elf recruiting is about to become a big deal, guys. I’ve been in a lot of meetings and there will be a lot of talk about this going forward. And I mean a lot.

It is a strange thing, if you ask me. It’s only June. Most people aren’t even thinking of Christmas. What’s more, Santa has not yet told us what our recruiting goal is this year. He usually does that in July, or at least he has for the last several years.

Maybe he will do it sooner this year. I do not really know. Everything else seems to be happening sooner this year, so why not Santa’s big announcement?

Anyway, regardless – getting new elves is going to become important.

How do you recruit new elves where you are? Well, that’s something we will be talking about for months. We know that no matter how hard we work it seems the most new-elf sign-ups happen in that last week before Christmas. That is not ideal. It means just a short period of training time for those elves who just sign up.

We know it is a much better experience if they sign up sometime before Christmas so they can get trained and have the fun that tracker elves usually have. But, it’s up to them.

Think about your friends. Think about your family. Heck, think about your parents. They need to become tracker elves, too. I’ll tell you right now it takes a lot more time for parents to train as tracker elves. So you might just want to start working on them now.

Keep an eye out from an elf named Flip Beanz. He’s a numbers guy. It’s his job to keep track of and to report on the number of tracker elves we have. I think his first report of the season is coming out in the next couple of weeks. He’ll tell us what the score is.

Also, your Elf Supervisor will be talking a lot more about this this year.