Santa Secrets

Did you know that Santa lives in Finland and that all those letters from children all over the world—close to a million of them every year—addressed to Santa Claus, The North Pole, actually end up in Rovaniemi, Finland, at the official Santa Claus Post Office? Santa himself lives down the road, in Santa Village. There he spends his time supervising toy production and responding to the massive number of emails he gets every day. Yes, emails. Santa has gone high-tech. This is Finland after all. In keeping with the times, he now has his own website where you can keep up on his doings through a webcam.

Below, an excerpt of an interview with the jolly man.

The Washington Times: Working only one day a year sounds like a pretty cushy job to me. If we catch you on one of those 364 off-days, in say, March, will we see you mooching around Santa Village in your jammies?

Santa Claus: A job with 364 days off does sound pretty good. Unfortunately my calendar does not quite look like that. No jammies for me, but you might see me in my swim trunks -- I love winter swimming.

WT: What does a typical workday look like for you this time of year?

SC: I spend a lot of time at my Arctic Circle office, meeting with visitors from all over the world. I also travel a lot, not only at Christmastime, visiting schools and hospitals. Then the rest of my time is spent overseeing toy production in Santa Village and taking care of my reindeer.

WT: I like the idea of the web cam on your website. It makes it a lot easier for us to see if you & Mrs. Claus are being naughty or nice. But what about you, how are you using technology to make your job easier?

SC: I correspond with a lot of children through email these days. If you want to email me, I can be reached at santa.claus@santaclausoffice.fi. I read and reply to all email messages I get, though not always right away and maybe not with very lengthy responses. I'm a very busy man, you know.

WT: Busy winter swimming?

SC: Exactly.

WT: You must be pretty tuned in to toy trends in the world. What are this year's top wishes?

SC: The traditional toys, stuffed animals, dolls and cars, remain at the top.

WT: I heard that you get close to a million letters a year from children all over the world. You must have a whole team of elves designated to just letter-opening.

SC: I have lots of elves, more elves than reindeer. One night just after Christmas, when most of the elves were at home here on Ear Mountain, I tried to count how many pairs of little feet I could see sticking out from the beds in the elf dormitory. I fell asleep at somewhere around seven hundred.

WT: I've taken a poll around the office and all we want for Christmas is world peace. Any chance of that?

SC: I'm afraid that's out of my hands. It's up to all of us, really. Before I dash off, I'd like to wish you and all the readers of The Washington Times a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

For a peek into Santa's workshop, visit his website at www.santaclauslive.com
 

© 2010. Karin Palmquist (karin@karinpalmquist.com). All rights reserved.