As everyone knows, Santa has Elves who help him design, make and wrap all the presents for Christmas. Now originally there were only 6 Elves, Alabaster Snowball, Bushy Evergreen, Pepper Mintstix, Shiny Upatree, Sugarplum Mary, Wunorse Openslae (sounds like One Horse Open Sleigh). As the number of children in the world got bigger, Santa invited some more Elves to come live in his village and help with the toys.

The original Elves began to train the new Elves and now help Santa by leading teams of Elves each working in a specific work area: -

Alabaster Snowball is the Head of The Naughty and Nice List, the other Elves in his team check how children are behaving and report back to Alabaster, who updates the list for Santa Claus.

Frosty McJingle is the Head Toy Inventor, he and his small team of Elves help Santa invent new toys each year.

Holly Snowflakes is the Head Toy Tester, with her team of Elves, Holly tests all of the new toys invented each year, her team must give a new invention a PASS before they can be made in large amounts by Bushy Evergreen's Team. The team also randomly test toys which have been getting made for many years to make sure they are still suitable for modern children.

Bushy Evergreen is the Head Toy Maker, he shows the Elves in his team how to make the new toys and ensures that all the toys are well made. He also has the really important job of making sure there are enough toys made each year for ALL the children in the world.

Sugarplum Mary is the Head Sweet Treat Maker, she teaches the Elves in her team how to make the sweet treats we all look forward to at Christmas Time. She ensures that everything tastes yummy and works on new recipes with Mrs Claus.

Snowy Gingerbread is the Head Gift Wrapper, her highly specialist team have to wrap all the gifts before they go in Santa's Sleigh no matter what size or shape. They take great pride in making the gifts look awesome.

Tilly Tinseltoes is the Head Clothes Designer, with the Elves in her team they make all the clothes for ALL the Elves, Santa and Mrs Claus as well as anything you might receive too. They work very closely with Mrs Claus who has the final say on styles and colours. Mrs Claus loves designing Christmas Jumpers.

Wunorse Openslae is the Head Sleigh Mechanic, he makes sure Santa's Sleigh is in top condition for Christmas Eve and sometimes he and the Elves in his team make improvements to Santa's Sleigh. They have added a tracker to the Sleigh so that we can check where Santa is in the world on Christmas Eve, so we know when it is time to be in bed and asleep.

Minty Mistletoe is the Head Sleigh Loader, her team have to load up Santa's Magic Sack and Sleigh so that all the gifts that Santa has to delivery on Christmas Eve fit. Santa can't go back to restock the Sack and Sleigh as this would take too much time and prevent all the gifts being delivered on Christmas Eve. As the number of children in the world has increased their job has become more and more specialised.

Chuck Snowball is the Head Reindeer Elf, he and his team take extremely good care of Santa's reindeer. They make sure the reindeer have nice clean stables. As well as plenty of tasty food, in December it is really important they ensure Mrs Claus knows when they are running low in Yummy Carrott Cookies so that she has time to bake more before they run out as that is the main thing the reindeer eat that month. They also take the reindeer out for some exercise each day into a specially built playground that the reindeer enjoy flying around, over and under the obstacles in it.

Bernard Twinklelights is the Head of Maintenance, he works with a team of Elves who all have building skills, so there are electricians who make all the Christmas lights twinkle, painters who keep all the buildings inside and out bright and cheerful, as well as joiner, plumbers, gardeners, bricklayers and lots, lots more and they keep everything in Santa's Village working perfectly for everyone.

Pepper Mintstix is the Head of Security, she works with her team to make sure that Santa's village is never seen by normal people like you and me (should we ever go to the North Pole). She and the Elves she works with also make sure that the Village cannot been seen from the aeroplanes that might fly over and that the Satellites that go around the world in space don't see it either. They have to keep an eye on how much Christmas Spirit there is, by closely monitoring Santa's Christmas Spirit Globe. If the amount of Christmas Spirit drops less snow falls within the Globe. They do this so they know if there is any risk to Santa's Magic, which is what powers the invisibility blanket that is around and over the Village, it also stops people bumping into the village if they are walking around North Pole.

Berry Snowtips is the Head of Comforts, she works with two teams of Elves, Team 1 makes sure there is always plenty of yummy food for all the Elves as well as Santa and Mrs Claus. This team works a lot with Mrs Claus as she helps decide what the menu for each day is going to be. Team 2 makes sure all the houses are always lovely and toasty inside, with nice clean rooms and plenty of snacks in the kitchen and making sure the hot chocolate machine is always topped up.

Jumpn Waejoy is the Head of Merriness, he has his team of Elves make sure there are always lots of fun things happening in the village such as activities and entertainment whether its Mrs Claus favourite Karaoke or Santa's favourite Snowball Fights. They organise Talent Shows, Competitions and lots lots more.

Shiny Upatree is Santa's Head Elf, he and Santa are best friends and set up Santa's Village together. Shiny is totally dedicated to Santa and his mission to ensure every child in the world gets a toy on Christmas Day. He helps make sure all the Elves are happy and working well, as well as generally helping out in anyway Santa needs him too.

You may be wondering about the other Elves?

Each Elf has a specific job that they do, but they are allowed to do other jobs instead if they wish, clearly each Elf gets really good at a job they do for a long time but sometimes they just feel like a wee change.

Naturally Elves have very happy personalities and love nothing more than working for Santa while singing Christmas songs. They all wear brightly coloured clothes that Mrs Claus and the Clothing Design Elves specially designs for each of them. They sometimes make pairs of odd socks as a few of the Elves like to wear odd socks every day.

The Elves all live in pretty little houses, that they share with their friends. The houses are kept all clean and tidy for them by the Elves of the Comfort team who also make sure there are lots of cookies, snacks and hot chocolate available in each house.

We are going to take a tour around the village in a little while, if you want, we can have a peep around some of the houses then too as well as the workshops and where Santa and Mrs Claus live.

Santa and Mrs Claus have been married a very long time, but no one seems to know exactly how long. All that is known it is hundreds of years.

As Santa's wife, Mrs Claus helps out in any way she can. She helps two particular departments which are:
The Clothes Design Department and the Sweet Treats Department. She helps the Elves in the Clothes Design Department design new clothes for the Elves, Santa, herself and all the children. She specialises in Christmas Jumpers. In the Sweet Treats Department, she helps make new recipes for all the sweet treats you find in your stockings.

She also makes sure there are plenty of cookies and hot chocolate for Santa and the Elves, as well as making sure they eat all of their meals and helping out with making and wrapping toys and helping Santa read through all the letters he receives. Sometimes she takes the letters that Santa sends out to the Post Office in Santa's Village. She also sometimes helps invent new toys or suggests ways in which toys can be improved.

On Christmas Day she always has a big fire burning in the fireplace which Santa sits beside when he returns from his long nights work and as he settles into his chair she always has his favourite cookies and hot chocolate ready for him to drink as he warms his feet at the fire.

Mrs Claus is a very shy lady and tends to stay at home, which is why there aren't many pictures of her, in fact I haven't found any clear ones of the real Mrs Claus so far, but I did write asking Santa if we could have one. She and Santa don't have any children of their own, they consider all the children in the world to be their children.

Santa has a herd of nine reindeer that pull his sleigh around the world on Christmas Eve. They are called Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Blitzen, Comet, Donner, Cupid and of course Rudolf, who leads the way with their red nose. Now many people think Santa's reindeers are all boys, but they are in fact girls, because boys don't have antlers at Christmas time, the antlers are important because they help give that little bit extra magic to keep them flying high all night long.

In the spring and summer Santa gives the reindeer a long holiday so they can go to a country that has lots of good land for them to graze. They are often seen in Alaska, where they eat willow leaves, sedges, mushrooms and flowers. As summer passes into autumn, they start to eat berries, moss and grass like plants until Santa and Mrs Claus come and collect them. Once they are back at the North Pole, they eat lots and lots of carrots and hay to help them build up their energy stores for flying high in the sky.

(Some of Santa's reindeer grazing with their friends in the summer)

Once their grazing holiday is over, the reindeer need to start training for the long journey that they make on Christmas Eve, so Santa regularly takes them out for a good long flight from the start of November onwards. You should watch the sky, if you see white lines in the sky that just might be Santa out on an exercise flight, or it might be an aeroplane. Just remember that during his exercise flights Santa is looking to see how the girls and boys below are behaving.

Like Santa & Mrs Claus, the reindeer have all been alive an extremely long time and this is because the magic that Santa has works on them too. Just like people the reindeer all have their own personalities, here's what we know about them: -

Dasher

Is the fastest of all the reindeer, she is very proud of how fast she can go, but sometimes can annoy the other reindeer when she talks about her speed a bit too much.

Dancer

Is a very proud and graceful reindeer and she likes getting to perform for Santa, Mrs Claus and the Elves. Dancer is a very strong reindeer who could probably pull Santa's Sleigh all on her own if ever asked to.

Prancer

Tends to think about herself before anyone else, she knows how lucky she is to be Santa's reindeer but doesn't understand why the others would feel the same way.

Vixen

Was Santa's very first female reindeer and worked very hard to prove that female reindeer were more suitable to pulling Santa's Sleigh than the boys, the boys lose their antlers before Christmas, and they are required to help get that little bit of extra lift they need to fly high.

Comet

Is a very clever reindeer but sometimes forgets to concentrate on what she is doing as she is thinking about much more “important” things at the time.

Cupid

Is not very keen on working hard, and believes she is much more important than the Cupid who shoots love arrows on Valentine's Day. She will talk about herself to anyone who will listen.

Donner

Has changed her name many times as she soon gets bored with a name, she likes to reinvent herself too depending on her mood.

Blitzen

Is a wonderfully confident reindeer who is also an extremely hard worker for Santa, no flight or load is ever too heavy for her.

Rudolph

Our red nosed friend is proud of how she leads the way for Santa and her friends and that her bright nose can help them see their way no matter how thick the fog, mist or blizzard might be.

All of Santa's reindeer live in a stable together, they each have their own bed made of the very finest hay and Santa and the Elves of the Reindeer team, led by Chuck Snowball, work hard to ensure the reindeer have plenty to eat and drink. They love getting their coats brushed, so each day Mrs Claus spends some time with each reindeer brushing their coats and talking with them. When she finishes brushing their coats each reindeer gets a special yummy carrot cookie that she makes specially for them. (The recipe is in the recipe section)

Each day Santa takes the reindeer out for a play in the snow and then for a flight, the reindeer love getting to fly high in the sky and the longer the flight they more they enjoy them. In December they take Santa on flights all over the world for the exercise and it lets Santa have a check on how the children of the world are behaving. As you walk about outside in November and December you should watch the sky for signs of Santa and the reindeer out a flight in your area, they leave a trail in the sky as they pass by. I caught them on a training flight over Clackmannan a few weeks ago.

The North Pole is the most northern point on the world, and it is 2,341 miles from Clackmannan. It is very, very, very, cold up there and a lot of the North Pole is actually located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean on a piece of frozen sea ice.

Now how on earth can Santa stay there?

Well, this is a very good question and I had to send him a letter asking where he actually lives as he clearly can't live under the ice or he would drown. Santa explained that his magic has a lot to do with everything. His village is covered by a magic blanket which means no one can see or feel it on top of the ice and you can only get into the village if Santa lets you. He explained that because it is very important that he and the Elves are not disturbed hiding his village was the best thing to do as they don't want people to think its ok just to drop by for a hot chocolate anytime.

So, the decision was made that the village would only be visited or seen by those Santa chooses and that it would be arranged that Santa would get helpers who see the children of the world in the run up to Christmas in their own home towns or cities. This is why you see Santas in the shops etc. before Christmas. They all report back to Santa how the children they have seen are behaving. BUT a wee word of warning, Santa has homes all over the world and sometimes he lives in them and spends some time in different villages, cities, countries etc. so you need to very nice to any Santa you see as you just never know it might REALLY be Santa.

How does Santa get in and out of his village I hear you ask?

Well recently Santa and the Elves replaced their entrance so that it was easier to get through on Christmas Eve when Santa's Sleigh is very full. There is now a special entrance which is normally hidden from sight but when you can see it, it looks like an igloo made of glass, the top of the igloo all folds away at the flick of a switch and Santa, Sleigh and the Reindeer just soar out of the big opening.

This picture was taken when they were just about finished building the new entrance, they just had to finish covering it up and then spray it with some of Santa's magic and it would disappear only to be found by those Santa wants to find it.

Each year Scientist and explorers go to the North Pole, they say they are checking how frozen the ice is or that they just want to take the very long walk, but Santa thinks they are secretly trying to find his village. He and the Elves have taken several pictures of people looking for the entrance, but the people never found it and didn't see that Santa was watching them.

If you look very carefully you will see two people out on the ice, but they have no idea Santa is watching them from the new entrance.