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Just in Time for the Holidays

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Just in Time for the Holidays VIEW MORE FROM THE

December 2005 Issue EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE
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A biting wind whips around the sprawling manufacturing campus at North Pole Workshops. The streets between the solid brick buildings are covered in fluffy white snow. Flurries swirl against the steely gray sky of a late November morning. But the soft glow of light from the windows and steady hum of machinery hint at the productivity inside.

Buildings 1 and 2 house the company’s massive mail facility, where children’s letters to Santa are sorted and matched against a database that tracks the writers’ behavior over the course of the year. Inside Building 3, gleaming steel equipment moves board games and Erector sets toward pallets where they are shrink-wrapped and readied for distribution on Christmas Eve. Red garland is draped across the windows that line the outer walls, though none of the busy elves seems to notice the festive touch.

A large man in a red suit walks among the workers. His smiles and waves are returned by the elves bustling on the shop floor. It is just five weeks until Christmas, and the plant is in high gear. The man is startled by the short, sharp blast of a horn and turns to find a forklift stacked high with boxes pulling up alongside him.

“Sorry for the horn, Santa. Not a minute to waste,” says the elf at the wheel.

“How’s everything going, Smitty?” Santa Claus

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