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.