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Hello again, human friends! This is Claudette the Frog with another exciting story! Today we have landed an exclusive one-on-one interview with Santa Claus!
He was in North Battleford this week from the North Pole, meeting kids and their parents at the local malls, and he was able to get a few minutes to be able to speak to the press. 听听So, here goes!
Claudette: 鈥淗i, Santa!鈥�
Santa: 鈥淗ello, Claudette! Ho ho ho! Don鈥檛 you look familiar?鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淲ell, I am a stuffed animal.鈥�
Santa: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 right! Say, I think I delivered a lot of frogs that looked just like you last Christmas! Frogs are pretty popular, you know. Ho ho ho!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淭hanks, Santa! Well, the question I have is why are you here in the Battlefords?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淚 am here to meet kids and their families and find out what everyone wants for Christmas. You see, we compile a huge computerized list up at the North Pole of what kids want for Christmas so it really helps if I meet the kids directly and find out what toys they want for Christmas! Then we send all that information up to the North Pole and get all the toys ready to be delivered in time for Christmas Day.鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淥K, Santa! So anyway, what are the most popular toys that you are finding in demand this Christmas season?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淗o ho ho! Have you seen the movie Frozen, Claudette?鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淯h, no.鈥�
Santa: 鈥淭he characters from that movie are really popular. I鈥檓 finding a lot of kids requesting items that are based on Disney鈥檚 Frozen.
Of course, Barbie remains very popular, and kids seem to like Lego a lot, too! Also, you find a lot of kids wanting electronic items, such as an Xbox or PlayStation, or iPads and other tablets. Things sure have changed from a few years ago!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淣ow, tell me what you have been up to this Christmas season?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, I have been very busy, as you know, going from one shopping centre to another. And I have been at numerous parades. I was in Toronto for the Santa Claus Parade, and on Thanksgiving Day in the United States, I was in New York for the annual Macy鈥檚 Thanksgiving Day Parade. And I have been to countless parades everywhere, including right here in North Battleford!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淥h, no! Wasn鈥檛 that parade held in cold and snowy conditions?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, I鈥檝e seen much worse, Claudette! I remember that big snowstorm several years ago that almost prevented us from getting presents to the kids. We had to recruit a reindeer with a bright and shiny red nose named Rudolph, and his nose was so bright that he was able to guide my sleigh during those terrible conditions!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淚s Rudolph still in your stable of reindeer?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, yes! You never know what the weather is going to be on Christmas Eve, so you need to be prepared! Ho ho ho!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淗ow do you plan for the weather you encounter, Santa?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淲e try to plan our route carefully. We keep close track of the weather conditions by watching the weather channels on TV and on the Internet, so we make sure to chart out our course and time our arrivals in any community perfectly so that we avoid the worst weather. We usually start our route by going to Australia or New Zealand first because we know we will get good weather there, ho ho ho!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淣ow, you鈥檙e still based at the North Pole, right?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 right, Claudette!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淎ren鈥檛 you worried about all these reports about global warming and what it might do to your headquarters at the North Pole? 鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, now, Claudette, that is a controversial question, ho ho ho!
I don鈥檛 know if the ice will melt any time soon. It is terribly cold at North Pole. I have to wear this big red coat to keep myself warm all the time! And Mrs. Claus does not like the cold weather at all.
In fact, conditions are so tough that we are having a hard time convincing enough elves to stay at the North Pole to make toys. One of our elves actually quit and became a dentist.鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淩eally!鈥�
Santa: 鈥淎lso, we have to deliver billions of toys. Billions! Because of our labour shortages, many toys we deliver from the North Pole are actually made in China and other countries now.鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淢ade in China! Good heavens!鈥�
Santa: 鈥淚 get a lot of feedback from parents about the reaction from their kids when they open their presents and find out the toys have a label on them that says they were made somewhere other than the North Pole. But as I have said, our elves at the North Pole simply cannot handle the volume of toy production. We simply have to outsource some of the work to other countries. It鈥檚 unfortunate it can鈥檛 all be done at the North Pole, but we have got to meet the growing demand. The toys must be made. I don鈥檛 want to let down any kids at Christmas time! Ho ho ho!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淥kay, that makes sense.鈥�
Santa: 鈥淎lso, at the North Pole we get a lot of donations from people who send toys to us with a note saying 鈥榤ake sure these toys go to the less fortunate.鈥� So I make sure to do that as well.鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 great, Santa! Do you have any time to answer your mail given your busy schedule?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, I鈥檓 very good at prioritizing my time, so I try to make sure every letter gets answered! Send your letters to me, Santa Claus, at the North Pole, or send me an email!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淣ow, here is a question everyone wants answered. How are you able to deliver all those presents so quickly on Christmas Eve?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淎t the North Pole, we have been able to enlist the help of some of the brightest minds in the world to help us deliver presents at top speed on Christmas Eve. These experts have been successful in adjusting the laws of physics perfectly to allow me to travel through the air and deliver presents in a span of one night! And my sleigh is designed by the world鈥檚 top engineers to fly through the air aided only by reindeer! It does not need oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, nothing. The sleigh is powered by all-natural, clean, green energy. There鈥檚 nothing like it in the world! But I don鈥檛 think even the experts know how they came up with it, which is why they haven鈥檛 been able to duplicate it anywhere else. Not even I understand it, ho ho ho!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淎re people able to track where you go on Christmas Eve?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥h, yes! We鈥檝e partnered with the folks at NORAD so that you can follow my travels on Christmas Eve! The official site is at www.noradsanta.org.鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淣ow, when you deliver presents, do you find that people welcome you into their homes?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淲ell, it can be a struggle with the way some of these chimneys are structured these days, but yes, so many people have welcomed me into their homes! In fact at quite a number of them, people leave gingerbread cookies and milk, and a note saying 鈥楩or Santa.鈥� It is so gratifying to see that. It makes the job of being Santa so worthwhile!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淪o once you are finally done your duties on Christmas morning, what do you do? Do you go back to the North Pole?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淎ctually, what I do is try to get myself to an NBA game or two!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淭he NBA! You鈥檙e kidding!鈥�
Santa: 鈥淣o. In the last few years I have really enjoyed going to basketball games on Christmas Day! If you watch the games on TV you鈥檒l often see me there in the crowd, waving. It鈥檚 a great way to relax after a long night delivering presents!鈥�
Claudette: 鈥淲ell, thank you very much Santa. Do you have a final message you want to send?鈥�
Santa: 鈥淥f course! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Ho ho ho!鈥� 听听听听听听听
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