Understanding Operation Airlift

The news coming from North Pole Flight Command this week has been a little rough. It has resulted in some questions coming from tracker elves – especially our freelance tracker elves.

Everyone wants to do something to help.

Helping begins by understanding the problem and that is what I want to explain today.

~ Operation Airlift is the Problem ~

The weather at the North Pole is a known issue. It seems to affect Santa every year because the most predictable thing about the week of Christmas at the North Pole is snow and a lot of it.

That’s not the problem.

The problem is much, much more complex. The problem is Operation Airlift.

When you go to a store to buy something every item has a bar code. You can’t read the bar code because it’s a computer thing. But when you take it to the cash register and it reads the code a price comes up.

That bar code has a lot more information associated with it beyond the price. It has information you can’t see and, frankly, information you don’t need to know. It is information about the product’s making, where it came from and how many of them are in stock.

The bar code on the item is a silent, easy way for the store people to manage getting stuff to you.

We have a similar system of things here at the North Pole, only it’s not a bar code.

Embedded in every Christmas present you receive is information you don’t need to know. It contains the name of every elf who has touched it (including Santa), when it was made, where it was made, etc. The whole journey of that gift is embedded in the package.

Why?

Because Santa has a very complex job that requires precision in planning.

Operation Airlift is a big part of that planning.

You see, on the day after Christmas, every year, Santa crawls out of bed after a really long nap and he makes his way to Santa’s workshop. There he does one thing and only one thing. He resets the countdown clock.

Then he goes back to bed.

That act of resetting the clock begins the process of planning and executing Operation Merry Christmas.

For us this year at the North Pole Operation Merry Christmas was cooking along just fine. Until this week.

And why?

Because the precision planning of Operation Airlift got tossed out the window – due to the weather.

How that happened isn’t important. What is important is that it happened. And we have to adjust.

All week long North Pole Flight Command has been scrambling to adjust.

Now it’s our turn to adjust as tracker elves.

~ Why Operation Airlift is Important ~

I cannot tell you everything. Some things need to remain a secret for Santa to do his job.

But I don’t think I’m violating any security policies when I explain that Operation Airlift is a logistical procedure that’s necessary for Santa to be Santa.

We answer questions all year long about how Santa gets around the world in just one night. We tell the truth of those things.

But we steer away from the business end of those questions and answers because they are boring. Operation Airlift is boring to most people, even to tracker elves.

You see, Santa is just one man and he flies just one sleigh. Reason would suggest that because of those facts not every thing for every believer in the entire world can fit on Santa’s sleigh.

Most people don’t care about that. But as elves we have to care about that.

There are legions of elves who take care of this part of the Santa business. They coordinate Operation Airlift, which is a massive operation involving literally thousands of people and thousands of other sleighs that are not Santa’s sleigh.

First them move stuff (gifts) from the North Pole to staging locations in various parts of the world. On Christmas Eve, sleighs move the stuff (presents) from those areas, and load them on the back of Santa’s sleigh. Once Santa starts delivering his sleigh is constantly replenished by elves in sleighs moving stuff (GIFTS!) so that Santa can deliver.

Operation Airlift also moves things that aren’t going to be delivered. Mostly it’s elves who transfer to and fro to all these places around the world where Santa needs them. Many of them are warehouse elves. But there are also scouts, scientists, weather people, supervisors, and other personnel who, for whatever reason, need to be shuttled places.

All of these sleighs are coordinated through North Pole Flight Command. It is planned almost down to the minute, way back last winter. North Pole Flight Command plans Operation Airlift to deliver certain stuff to certain places at certain times. It’s that precise. Of course, things *always* get off track a little bit. They build that into the plan.

Operation Airlift actually began the day after Thanksgiving. But the real work of Operation Airlift takes place in the last five days before Christmas.

That’s right now, gang.

The precision plan that began when Santa reset the countdown clock last December 26th fell apart this week. And I mean it got thrown out the window. The ability for Flight Command to launch sleighs on the schedule they set up earlier this year just cannot be met.

We have shared some news via the North Pole websites this week about how Flight Command is adjusting to all this.

Everyone keeps asking “Are things alright?” or “Is this going to affect Santa?” or, the worst, “Is Christmas ruined?”

Well, first of all, relax.

Having a precision plan means building in wiggle room for things to go wrong. As I said, and as we have been told by elves in charge, they are adjusting.

But the plan is shot. Are we on time or are we late? Will Santa be able to deliver on time or not? Will everyone get what they want for Christmas?

Frankly, we don’t know.

I don’t say that to scare anyone or to paint a glum picture.

I’m just saying the plan has fallen apart and we’re doing the best we can to do what we set out to do last December 26th – to help Santa get around the world.

~ Here’s What Every Tracker Elf Needs to Do ~

So what do you do as an elf trying to help Santa this year?

Here’s the plan going forward for the next few days:

1. Check in here often. Some elves are complaining that their elf supervisor isn’t giving them enough to do. Be patient. They are scrambling to KNOW what to do. For right now, just come by often to see if they say anything.

2. Be ready to answer the call – if it comes. But don’t be surprised if nothing comes. If you have been with us all year and have done your job your part in things have not really changed. Your roof has been reported, your chimney inspected, and all your other reports have been sent on time. The need for information for Santa – so far – has been met. We have some elves suggesting things based on the news that is coming out. One well-meaning elf in Pennsylvania in Sector 5 offered to have Santa drop off all the presents for people in his neighborhood at HIS house and HE would go down their chimneys himself to deliver. That was a generous idea but that’s not his job and that really isn’t the problem right now. You stay in your lane. You’re a tracker elf and that’s how the powers that be at the North Pole know you. If you’re needed, it’s going to be for tracker elf stuff. Be ready for that.

3. Ask your questions on the Elf Wall. If you are a freelance elf, ask your questions in the comments below any article here on SantaTrackers.net. You can do that.

What’s going to happen the next few days?

I don’t know. Every year is a new story and this year the story went from ordinary to something else.

Is Operation Merry Christmas in trouble?

Hardly.

We’re going to make it happen. We’re elves. That’s just what we do.

About this Elf: Elf Ed Zachary

Elf Ed Zachary is Director of News at the North Pole. He oversees all North Pole news outlets - newspapers, websites, radio and television stations.

Ed Zachary has been a force in North Pole journalism for decades, having served for years as a columnist for the North Pole Gazette. He is known as the Defender of Santa Claus, taking on all doubters and scoffers of Santa and his Christmas effort.

As part of his news duties Elf Ed Zachary contributes "news about the news" at the North Pole for the Santa Tracker Herald Star.