Santa Claus Reveals His Actual To-Do List

A lot of people think I don’t exist. How’s that possible? I’ve been delivering for centuries. You would think I would have some cred by now. I eat roughly 426 metric tons of cookies and other things during the holidays. 96 Olympic pools of various beverages. You ever try to land reindeer on solar panels?

It is not easy. What’s with all the giant windmills. I understand why you have ’em, but everywhere I’m flying in, I’m flying past these things, it’s gotten challenging. I need a 0.00036 nanoseconds per home to do the 32 hours to deliver the 336 million homes when I actually get to walk in with a bag full of presents when they see me coming through the door with a bag full of prints.

Best feeling in the world.

Happy holidays. Welcome to a very special Christmas episode of The To-Do Show. I’m so excited and I cannot believe the guests we got today. We got actual Santa on the to-Do show. He is one of the world’s most famous list makers, and in today’s episode, we really get to dig into his list and there are a lot of elements that might surprise you.

This was such a wonderful conversation. I, I shouldn’t have expected anything less, but this conversation with Santa was so heartwarming and really reminded me of the spirit of Christmas and the season of giving. This episode is totally good for children, safe for children to get to understand the behind the scenes of what Santa does day to day in order to spread magic, uh, year round, and especially around Christmas.

Please enjoy this very special Christmas edition of the Todo Show. The show. The show. The show. The.

I am so excited that you’ve taken the time to talk with me in December. Your biggest busiest time of the year, I’m pretty sure you’re the world’s most famous list maker, so it’s very exciting to have you on the to-Do Show. Show all about how people’s lists manage their lives and you’ve sent me your to-do list.

It’s absolutely amazing. I’m so excited to get into it with you.

You call it my to-do list, but it’s really the one Mrs. C makes for me. I’m just, I want to point that out.

I’ve gotten to chat with Mrs. C as we’ve been setting this up, and it’s been great to witness the support team behind everything that goes into Santa Claus and this time of year, I’m sure you, you couldn’t do it without her.

No, we have a saying up at the North Pole there, too Important, dear Reindeer, and yes dear, love that you are famous and you also have one of the world’s most famous uniforms that indicates what your job is. So normally I start every interview by saying. How do you normally answer the question? What do you do?

I’m guessing you don’t get asked that question too often, but if you were to be asked the question, what do you do? How would you answer?

I always say, it’s not about me. What we do is we’re trying to inspire humanity to be better people.

A lot of people don’t realize that Christmas is about giving and not getting.

So when we deliver a present to a small child or to somebody young who isn’t cynical, we give them a chance to learn how to play. And when we learn how to play, we learn how to be better human beings. And so part of our goal is to inspire people to do targeted anonymous giving, which of course is the basis for civilization.

So we have a mission.

I love that. That’s a beautiful answer.

I’m really curious about what goes into supporting Santa, like how you stay healthy and well and full of energy, because especially this month you are really giving and giving it your all. What type of things do you do behind the scenes to stay healthy and balanced and, uh, what do you do to take care of Santa.

Well?

Um, so first of all, I’m 1,755 years old. My A A RP card is one.

So, um, when I get up in the morning and it’s scheduled and everything, if, if left to my own devices, I just run off to any current project or problem that I see on, on the bulletin board. But Mrs. C, she keeps me on a schedule. And so first thing I have to do is get up and have breakfast. That’s the most important thing.

We have a little hot house. Sometimes I go out and sit by the flowers or I go outside and in the snow and everything, I’ll have a cup of cocoa or what have you, uh, up at Claws Valley, a lot of people think it’s the North Pole, the way you think it is, but it’s actually pretty nice there most of the time.

And it does get cold and snowy during the winter, but it’s not a vulnerable. Most of the time anyway, we have a good breakfast and everything, and then I go to my exercise room and I exercise, I do yoga, meditation, Zumba. I love dancing. And so, you know, get out there and try to do a little bit of that. Also, I do a lot of lifting during the, the big night, of course.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, 336 million homes. So going up and down those chimneys, going through those doors and everything. That’s a lot of lifting. So yeah, I, I definitely have to work out, watch out for my lower back as well. Always lift with the knees.

Absolutely. Great tip.

Uh, and then I see you also do calisthenics with the elves, so, oh yes.

Everybody’s working together. So here’s the thing about the North Pole. Um, as humanity expanded, a lot of the creatures, elves, Yeti, Sasquatch, you name it, they all came to live up at the, a lot of them came to live up. At the North Pole, and then we have the great dark woods and everything. So we have all sorts of creatures and some of them come and exercise with me, which is hilarious because honestly I don’t think an elf really needs to do exercise.

They’re having a good time, so I’m not gonna disappoint ’em. You know, they’re, they’re like, you know, Santa Santa, you gotta learn downward reindeer. I’m like, okay, I’m gonna learn downward reindeer. You know? So I’ll look off to my right and there’s some big hairy thing, and I’m like, morning.

Keeping it, keeping it fresh.

Never know what you’re gonna get during an exercise session.

Yes. Absolutely. That sounds very fun.

I’m curious, as you already mentioned, you’ve been around quite a long time. Uh, I’m guessing the tools that you use to do your job have changed a lot. I mean, we’re talking over video call right now. You have a very on top of it, digital to-do list.

How has your relationship with tools and technology evolved as tools and technology has evolved in order to support you in doing your job?

Well, here’s one of the brilliant things. Mrs. Claus is more of a techie than I am, but, uh, the thing is, is we’ve had the advantage of not having forgotten. Elves may lose focus, but they don’t forget.

And so as, uh, we’ve gone through time, we’ve absorbed a bit more technology and, and been able to hang onto it, whereas humanity ke has to keep rediscovering it. So that gives us a big advantage. And then the other thing to remember is back when I was young, magic and technology weren’t divided. They were one in the same thing.

And so we have, I love that some advantages in, in the other category as well. And so, you know, I might have.

Uh, you know, a technological device next to me, I might have a magical device. Both of them have their uses and of course, our software and technologic designs, a lot of them we can’t share with humanity or we will be sharing it.

Wrapped in with other things other humans are making.

Nice. Interesting.

I feel like there’s a lot of people saying these days about the state of humanity being worse than ever. You’ve, you’ve been around for a long time. You’ve witnessed humanity go through many struggles and resolutions over and over again, and I would just love to get your perspective on what, what do you feel.

Where do you feel people are right now and do you still see lots of hope and goodness and Christmas spirit and spirit of giving in? In people today?

That is what we call the big question. And so in these troubled times, I think the best answer is I can give you the King Solomon answer and say, this too shall pass.

I honestly believe that humanity is gonna get through this. It’s gonna take some time. But the thing is, is as humanity grows and has to deal with all its technology and all its growing pains, learning how to be the best human beings we can be. There are gonna be some rough times. And so my wish is for all of you, for Christmas or any other holiday that you pick, that you all get a chance to be nice to each other.

’cause at the beginning and at the end, that’s what matters.

And the other thing I would say is, is that as somebody who’s a, a designer and a developer myself, it’s always a question, not so much of can we make something or should we make something? Right.

And so, yeah.

You know, as AI and all these other technologies come online, we’re going to have to be very careful about what we think is important to us.

Because the wrong power in the wrong hands could cause a lot of harm. And unfortunately, I’m only allowed to bring Christmas presents to inspire humanity. I have to stay in my lane, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. ’cause I really do.

Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything, any question or reflection point that you could offer to people on this topic?

Yes. Christmas is about targeted, anonymous giving, and that’s the reason why I’m choosing this as my lane, my thing to do to help inspire humanity. When we learn how to play, we learn how to fight and, and be creative and cooperate together and do things together well. That’s the basic contract of civilization.

When you think about it, we all agreed to drive down the freeway at this speed or fly down the air lane at this speed and go this direction and so forth without thinking about it. We’re going to do what we can to help other people without expecting anything in return. Well, that’s how everything works.

That’s how all of civilization works. And so when we do something nice for somebody without expectation of reward.

That makes the difference. And unfortunately people have gotten into a scarcity mindset and what we need mm-hmm. Is what they call a virtuous loop. We need to see the world as a game where we can all play together and have fun together and survive together.

That only happens if we open in our hearts. Yeah. We could all win and make a difference.

Yeah, exactly. And I’m all about that.

That was very well said. Thank you.

Thank you.

So you’ve mentioned MS makes your to-do list. I like that you have a theme for each month, uh, that kind of keeps you focused and organized.

And of course, December is, uh, all around the big delivery night.

We don’t just deliver on Christmas Eve, we deliver multiple points throughout the holiday. So different countries, different times, uh, new Year’s Eve, December 6th. So we are actually delivering multiple times throughout the holiday season.

Oh, wow.

I didn’t know that.

Oh, yes.

But like that gets, that gets underplayed.

Yeah. But I mean, if you are, you know, somebody who follow a different calendar, new Year’s Eve or 12th Night or Three Kings Day, they all play an important part of your holiday. We try not to disappoint.

Oh, excellent goal. Let’s get back to the to-do list.

So after, okay. You have breakfast and you’re mm-hmm. Yoga, working out, meditation. Now it’s time to get to work. This is a to-do list snapshot from last week.

Mm-hmm.

So we’re in mid December you have Yep. Daily meetings about toy development, logistics, packing, and shipping, and magical council. That’s, that’s a lot.

Mm-hmm. Can you, can you walk me through those a bit?

It is. Sure. So, um, toy development really never stops. One of the big challenges we have to face is that when we have a big rollout with a new toy, like for instance, a few months ago, we didn’t know the whole labu boo thing was going to suddenly hit, right?

And so not only do we have to make our version of Bubu and make a deal with those toy makers ’cause we never wanna harm another. Manufacturer, but we have to check our quality control. We have to make certain that they don’t come to life and run around the room. So there are little challenges that we have to worry about.

And then of course, logistics. Where are we getting our ingredients, our raw materials and everything? We’re completely green, by the way. We have to source everything, just like everybody, every other manufacturer testing processes.

Question is, do we want to have one of our clockwork machines build something or do we want to have one of our elves build it?

It’s a question.

You know, I gotta remember only a few hundred years ago we were building wooden horses and now we’re being asked to make iPads. A little bit of a challenging thing.

And then the other thing is, is elves, once you put them around things like virtual reality and stuff like that, we have problems. So because they have a hard time defining reality in the first place.

Oh yeah.

Yes, and I’m guilty of that too. I’m Chief Toy Tester. And just for the record, the Rocket propelled skateboard not ready for prime time yet. Ow.

So.

Yeah. And so every, everything that you in the real world get when I deliver these things, we’ve had to test it, pack it, ship it, and we have the added challenge of unlike UPS or Prime or any of the other big shippers, they don’t generally ship in wrapping paper.

So not only do we have to deliver it, but we have to deliver it looking pretty.

So the next thing on your list is follow up activities from any of the meetings. So what does that typically look like, right?

Let’s say for instance, logistics is telling me that we’re having a problem with some of the toys expanding inside of the box, or batteries going dead, or things like that.

Well then that would lead to a follow up meeting. Okay.

And then I, I’m going to say, okay, well let’s get ’em in the test bags. Let’s do a test run with one of the Zoomers. You know, let’s try a few runs on, we have test houses we test in, and so we do some testing in the test houses and see how they land, and then we’ll have some watchers watching what happens as.

People unwrap them, things like that to see how it all goes.

And again, we never want somebody to get hurt, anybody cut, that sort of thing. We don’t want them to open it up and have all the parts fall out. So a lot of challenges actually.

Absolutely, man. Yeah. There’s so many little details to manage, to support, so such a, and remember, I’m not just doing, I’m not just doing presents under the tree.

I’m doing stockings too.

Absolutely.

I going around trying to arrange a few Christmas miracles, but that’s not about me. That’s about a higher power. Sometimes I’m just arranging for an empty seat on a plane to be filled by somebody Special. A little bit of Christmas here. Somebody might accidentally look into some ticket master tickets.

However, I can get the Christmas magic done. That’s what we’re gonna do.

That’s awesome.

Next you have stables and reindeer training.

Did, is that something that’s consistent all year round or is there different or additional training?

Yes. Around December.

Yes. Well, the, the thing that people forget is that I didn’t start out with flying reindeer originally.

It was just my two feet, you know, Pete and repeat. I was growing up delivering, and then we switched over to Dominic, the donkey, and then I had a marigo, my horse, and then finally we switched over to the reindeer. But the reindeer had to be taught. Right. They didn’t get their powers automatically either, and so I ran into a lot of trees and a lot of mountains as we were learning how to fly with the reindeer and everything.

It’s an ongoing process.

What type of training is the reindeer training? Is it just, is it exercise? Is it a lot of, uh, you know, being aware, aware of obstacles?

So here. Right. Well, uh, okay. First of all, you folks in the, in, in what I call the mundane world, don’t realize how hard you’ve made it on this old man.

Okay?

You ever try to land reindeer on solar panels? It is not easy. All right. And then of course, you know, all the kids are up there flying drones around.

Well, hey, it keeps it interesting.

Yes, indeed. Having, having new challenges, indeed, we have more air traffic in the air than has ever been before, and so we have to negotiate with that.

We’ve got that fellow with all his satellites that he’s pumping into orbit. We’ve gotta deal with that. We’re doing circumnavigation around the entire globe, right as we come in and hit the cities. If you were to watch us in real time, you would just see a flash as we go by, right?

But we had the advantage of magical technology. TEUs, Fugate. That allows us to bank time to do what we do.

Wow.

And so as we absorb this magic and this time and everything, we use it to go back and do our deliveries.

So next you have break for lunch and drop by the cookie tasting room for quality control.

Yeah.

I didn’t realize that you were making cookies or cookies were being baked at the North Pole. I thought you just traveled the world.

Okay.

And that’s when you did your tasting, so, okay.

Yeah, so I, I eat roughly 426 metric tons of, of cookies and other things during the holidays.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, 96 Olympic pools of various beverages. You see, the thing is, is when I go to other countries, they give me different things.

So when I’m in Uhhuh. In the uk they give me mince pies. And sherry, when I’m in, uh, Sweden, it’s black coffee. It’s an ice cold lager. When I’m in Australia, fish soup in Nigeria, everywhere I go, they gimme something different.

So I’m eating and drinking all that.

But the thing is, is we’re using bioenergetics and so I’m burning all that energy very quickly to do my deliveries. But what that has made me is the world’s greatest expert on cookies. I eat every kind of cookie under the sun.

Uh, yeah. And when the edibles came out, that was a surprise.

So anyway, I made, uh, uh, you know, right. So anyway, uh, what happened was, is, um, I became kind of an expert on cookies. And so every time I eat one, uh, an amazing cookie or something that makes me go, Ooh, I gotta bring this back. I bring a couple of them back. I give them Mrs. Claus, and she adds them to her roster.

And we are trying to design.

The ultimate cookie.

Goodness.

And so, you know, can you I share any more specifics than that? Like do you have, can you tell me a little bit about where you think, what are some of the ingredients or styling of the ultimate cookie?

I love every kind of cookie, but I will tell you this one, it is chewy, it is chocolatey. It’s got some flavors you haven’t even tried yet, and when you eat it, you can feel the hair on your toes curl. It is lovely, absolutely lovely.

And every year we get better and better. We bring them out after Christmas as a celebration with everybody.

This year’s cookie, the point I was going to make is, is that I have to go in and test them every so often because I am the best.

Mm-hmm.

Cookie taster in the world. Now, Mrs. C says, I do not need to do that. But you know, there is some benefits to having little, Hey, hurts of the job. Come on. Right?

Yeah.

And I have, I point out I have to eat the bad ones too. Right.

Yeah.

I have to, you know, because I don’t know when I eat it, if it’s good or bad.

I think there’s probably, uh, some signs. I have memories of, you know, some of my early attempts of cookies for you, like around age five, where it was basically just goop in a circle. Uh, versus, versus now I hope, I hope my cookies are some of the cookies inspiring that best cookie.

Can you see these?

Yes.

These are asparagus cookies. Not one of my favorite cookies. And these asparagus cookies, you know who loves them? The reindeer. But the problem is, is if you give asparagus cookies to reindeer at 30 or 40,000 feet, suddenly you’re behind nine big gassy reindeer. It’s enough to turn your beer green.

You don’t want that?

Oh my goodness. No, no, no.

Oh boy.

And so, yeah, and that was one of Mrs. Claus’s experiments, and she thinks I still love them.

I.

So, um, moving right along after the cookie tasting and everything, Mrs. Claus and I check, uh, children’s letters and just remember when a thought is made in the universe of a certain type that is a children’s letter, it will get to the North Pole.

Okay.

It doesn’t matter if it’s passenger pigeon, a letter in a bottle brought by Camelback, it will get there.

So I just want to tell everybody that it does get there.

And then the other thing is, is that we wanna make certain we get the right present for the right child. That’s a big thing.

And as far as we’re concerned, you’re all children. When you’re all old as us.

You know, and one of the challenges we have, and I’m sad to say this is something called the gift paradox.

And the gift paradox is if I came in and dropped very, very expensive presence in an area that was economically challenged. Bad things could happen. People could get hurt.

Yeah.

Right.

Children will ask me for, uh, an iPhone, say, and I’ll ask them, well, I’ll see. I take it, you have a lot of calls.

And they go, mm-hmm.

I said, okay, who’s paying for the phone service, you know, with the carriers?

And the kid looks at me and I go, you know, somebody has to pay for that. Who’s gonna pay for it?

And they point to their parents and I said, why shouldn’t I get the phone to your parents?

I go, oh.

And so the thing is, is every gift that you give has ramifications. And so when we’re looking at the, at the wishlist, there are some things that I won’t deliver, and there are some things that I, I deliver, which they’re not expecting.

Yeah.

Um, one of the best presents to give is something like Legos.

Why? Because you can make anything you want out of them, and it doesn’t matter who gets ’em.

Yeah.

Everybody loves Legos.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I wanna know a little bit more about the nice and naughty list. So you know Mrs. Claus is in charge of that, right?

I did not know that. She hasn’t, no. Hasn’t tell me more.

Yes. Oh yes. She’s been in charge of the naughty, naughty, and nice list for many years now. She has a team, of course, and she has a magic telescope that she can use to tune in on problem.

Cases, she has the ability to kind of see people’s potential and so she’ll look in on people who are in the naughtier nice list.

And sometimes we’ll see somebody who seems naughty, but maybe all they need is a little bit of encouragement in the right way.

And so, for instance, yeah.

If I saw somebody who seemed naughty because they were frustrated, maybe that’s the person I’m gonna deliver a, an, an artistry kit to. So they could paint or sculpt or, or put that, that emotion someplace else and suddenly they get discovered as a great artist.

And so finding that perfect point in the knottier Nice list. That’s a wonderful thing.

This might be an opportunity to give a PSA for people who aren’t quite sure if an action is going to bring them onto the nice or naughty list. Could you give some overarching guidelines of how to make sure you’re on the nice list and not on the naughty list?

Generally speaking, you want to be kind. You want to avoid hurting others. You want to do something that is a benefit to the world.

If you do the reverse of that, if you are mean or hurtful or forgetful in a way that hurts somebody else, if you hurt somebody even without intention, that’s being on the naughty list.

And then finally, we have to understand that everything we do has an impact.

And so sometimes just by doing something simple like opening a door for someone or carrying the garbage out to the curb, it can actually have profound effect.

If you had an older neighbor who was having problems doing that, and for you it would be an easy thing.

That’s a nice list thing.

If you continually watch them struggle, that would be possibly a naughty list thing.

You get judged not just by your good actions, but also by your inactions.

Very well said.

We can move on to publicity and reconnaissance.

So one of the things I have to do is I’ve gotta get out there and see the world and see how people are interacting with me.

Now the thing about being Santa Claus is wherever I go, the magic changes me.

And so when I show up at someplace I might.

Be shorter, taller, darker, smaller. My eyes may change color. It’s really up to the magic, what I’m going to look like.

And then of course, I have all my Santa helpers, and so that’s part of the reconnaissance.

Mm-hmm.

I’m getting out there and I’m seeing the world.

Right, because I wanna make certain the, the North pole doesn’t lose touch.

And then the other thing is, is that publicity, a lot of people think I don’t exist.

How is that possible?

I’ve been delivering for centuries now. You would think I would have some cred by now, but anyhow.

Seriously.

Um, right, and so I will go out and I’ll ride in on a fire truck or show up at, at a sports game, or come up and knock on somebody’s house and introduce myself.

It’s rather lovely.

Sometimes when I get to, in their awake time, walk in with a bag full of presents when they see me coming through the door with a bag full of prints, they’re like.

That’s great.

Best feeling in the world.

Yeah. I mean, this is a, that’s an interesting thing, like on the big night, usually your job is to kind of stay hidden from children, but, but the rest of of the year you’re, you’re, you’re trying to think, here’s the thing.

I’m not hidden. I’m not hidden.

I need them in bed because I’m moving so fast.

If they’re not in bed, if I accidentally run into somebody at the speed, I’m going.

Right when the reindeer fly in, Doner can absorb all the sonic booms. Blitzen can absorb all the lightning and you know, high power line, ESD, electrostatic discharge, so on and so forth.

So when we come flying in, it’s precision and I need a 0.00036 nanoseconds per home.

To do the 32 hours to deliver the 336 million homes.

And again, I have the time splicer to help, but those kids need to be in bed because I do not wanna run into them at, at high speed.

Absolutely. Yes.

61st. I’m not, actually first. Yeah. I’m not actually hiding from them. I’m, I’m, I’m not hiding from them, per se, per se.

I need them to hide from me.

Yeah. But then, but then it’s nice to have other points throughout the year where you do get to have some of that children interaction.

It’s surprising, you know, a lot of people, uh, forget on, on Christmas Eve, they see me doing all this work, but what am I doing?

I’m looking at nine big shaggy reindeer butts.

Yeah.

Yep. I know them backwards better than forwards.

Oh boy.

So, well, right on the topic of reindeer.

Next thing on your to-do list is, is return the reindeer to the stables.

Yes.

Check the leather tack for cleaning. Get the bells polished.

Is that, that’s not your job? Is that That That’s gotta be the elves.

Well, here’s the thing, I, I was the one who helped start this out, and so to make certain that there’s continuity in the workflow and that we have training generations, I have to keep coming back in because sometimes some of the elves will swap out to different departments.

We also have humans and other creatures, and so if I don’t come back every so often to check on a task.

There might be a problem.

Like for instance, uh, the other day somebody was working with the harnesses and I went over and I checked and they were using the wrong kind of leather treatment.

And I know that this leather treatment, once it gets down to a certain temperature, the leather becomes too stiff and it makes it very hard for me to do what I do.

And I was like, um, guys, what are you using on this?

And they showed me the product and I was like, no. Wait, wait, we’re, we’re going back over to this one.

And they go, but Santa, and I’m like, trust me, you’re not up there.

Trust me.

But you see, it’s that kind of continuity and follow through that makes certain that the job gets done.

Yeah, absolutely. Sounds like you’re a very excellent leader.

I don’t know if I’m an excellent leader, but I do know that the key to being a great leader is trying to figure out which direction people are going in, then get in front of them

That that’s a good tip.

All right, next you have North Pole Council check-in and Legendary’s zoom.

Call check-in, please.

Right?

Yeah.

Tell me about that.

So a lot of pe, a lot of people don’t realize that the North Pole and Santa Claus we’re part of the legendaries, and so we work with the other Legendaries, Easter Bunny, the Sandman, the Pumpkin King Jack of the lanterns.

We work with all those folks because our areas of responsibility overlap a little bit, and so I have to check in with them.

They help me. I help them.

A lot of people, they forget that there’s a scary element to Christmas, the Tales and the glories and Scary ghost stories of Christmases long, long ago, you know, with the three Ghost visiting Ebenezer Screws. That was a scary story.

Well, who owns that? Is it Jack of the Lanterns or is it Santa Claus?

Our domains overlap, and so we wanna make certain that we’re not stepping on anybody’s talents, claws, toes, what have you.

Is it a pretty supportive network?

Oh yes. Oh yes.

Um, they have a different frame of mind, though. You have to, when you go in the room, you just gotta say, I need to see this from a non-human perspective, right?

What they think is important, what I think is important may be two very different things, but I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Next you have drop by research, testing, and development.

So every toy that we’re testing, every new concept that we’re testing, I have my own little laboratory, my own little workshop where I’m building things, trying things.

Sometimes I’ll get an idea and I’ll go back out into the big shop and they’ll go, oh yeah, Santa, we invented that a long time ago.

Like, dang it.

Mm-hmm.

But the other sometimes, you know, I pick up something and I go, I don’t like this. This seems mean and hurtful.

Let’s, yeah, no, let’s take it off the line.

And so, you know, we’ll let the human man, oh, that’s great.

Right. Well, a, a again, we’re all about inspiring. We want to inspire play.

Yeah.

And believe me, you know, the, the kids who are playing with the cardboard boxes and the cardboard tubes after Christmas, rather than playing with the expensive toys, uh, that’s a feature, not a bug.

I want the kids to be making rocket chips out of cardboard boxes. I am all for that.

Absolutely. I love that. Yes. That’s some good Christmas spirit.

Alright, and then after that you have cooked dinner for Mrs. C.

I’m impressed that you are the chef of the family.

Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m the chef, but the, the one thing that I’ve found is that, especially in the case where you’re a married couple that’s working together, both as a business team and a real life team.

You can’t forget the small stuff. Life is about the small stuff.

And so, um, tonight I’m going to make her salmon and asparagus and small potatoes.

Mrs. C she gets fresh lilac every week. That’s her favorite flour.

And um, I always try to do something small. I can’t give her tchotchkes anymore. She’s gotten angry at me at that ’cause her whole desk area is covered with cute little tchotchkes.

Yeah, but sweetie, uh, this was hand card from Nepal.

She said, sweetie, I have 5,000. I Enough.

Yeah.

So now I’m, now I’m trying to figure out what to get her for for the holidays.

Um, I’m thinking maybe a giant wheel of cheese. That would be fun.

Yeah. You can’t go wrong with that.

Right? You can’t go wrong with cheese.

Yeah. That’s an excellent idea.

So cook dinner for Mrs. E and then after that, yep. Last meeting with department leads.

Again, this is my bubble up feature. Any fires we’re trying to put out, at the end of the day, I need to get a situation, account situation, mission, e, execution, administration, control, and signals.

I need to get that all nailed down before I go to bed.

Right, and so Mrs. C and I will get out our notebooks and we’ll compare things with each other again.

It’s more like me saying, yes dear. Yes dear. Yes, dear.

The other thing to remember is, is that sometimes you’re not gonna solve all the world’s problems at one night.

There three things I want people to think of when you’re dealing with stress.

Number one, do what you can do.

Secondly, influence. What you can influence. Talk to the person, move the garbage, can. Do whatever it is you can to influence what you need to influence.

And finally put it down. You have to learn to put it down.

And then the next morning, that’s a good one. You can pick it all up and you can start all over again.

I had a very wise monk up in the mountains tell me this bit of advice and I just wanna say thank you because it’s been super helpful for me.

And so the rule is do what you can do. Influence what you can influence. Put it down.

Guess which one of these is the hardest? Putting it down.

Put it down, right?

Yeah.

So a bit of business advice for you and life advice.

Your final things are Observatory Northern Lights, weather forecasting. Double checking your lists.

Right, so here’s the thing. The weather is always changing.

The physics of our planet are always changing.

Mm-hmm.

There are three north poles. There’s the magnetic North pole, there’s the geographic North Pole, and there’s the magical North Pole.

All of them are influenced by various elements, whether it’s a solar flare, the Aurora Borealis, I need to check up on this, and also astrology, astronomy.

Back when I was young. Kind of the same science.

One of the things that humanity has forgotten is that our solar system is moving through time and space through the universe.

The laws of physics that were here, that are here now may not have been the ones that were back then, nor.

May not be the same ones as what we’re going into.

I’m kind of aware of that because simply the length of my life, and so I notice little things.

That’s me keeping records because as Santa, we can never not deliver.

That’s critical for us.

Wow. Yeah. So many variables to keep track of. It’s very impressive.

Oh my, yes.

All right. My final question is if you could see the to-do list of anybody, whether that be a specific person or a job title, who’s to-do list would you most like to see?

Well, you know the great thing about being at the North Pole, we’ve had some of the greatest minds on the planet come up and we had a fellow. His name was Nicola Tesla.

And Nicola Tesla had a unique ability. He could picture everything in four or five or six dimensions in his brain. He could literally imagine alternating current engine and expand it, bring it apart with all its bolts, as is, uh, a schematic, right?

And rotated it in his brain as a human being. I never ever saw him write a list, not once.

And so, yeah, I’m certain he did, but most of the time when I saw him, he was always like this.

I would love to see what was going on in there.

Even if it’s just the mental list, you know, that that is a valid to-do list. It doesn’t have to be written down.

Right.

And remember, he’s not seeing it just in time. He’s seeing it multiple dimensions, something that affected him as a child and something that is going to affect him in in, in his future and everything.

He may be figuring that in along with his oatmeal.

When you get to that level, it’s kind of terrifying or inspiring or both.

That too.

Yeah. Great answer.

Well, do you have any, anything else you’d like to share or, uh, well, I, I would, there are two things.

Number one, young lady, okay. You haven’t told me what you want for Christmas.

Uh, I want a green card for my husband so I can move home.

Alright, I’ll see what I can do. Not really my department, I’m a toy maker, but I know people who know people, so I’ll see what I can do.

All right. And then, uh, the other question is appreciate. What could Santa do for all of your listeners?

You’ve shared some amazing reflection points, but yeah, if you have any others, I think questions are the most powerful tool on earth, so if you have any questions that people can ask themselves to, to leave the listeners with a question that they can reflect on over the holiday season, that would be great.

Here’s my advice to your listeners.

Number one, get outside. Get outside when the weather is at least slightly. Clement, look at the stars, unplug. Sing some songs.

If there are some pine trees, smell some pine trees.

But get outside. Look at the stars, sing some songs. Maybe sit around a fire. Connect to the eternal—advice number one.

Advice number two, remember when we get each, get around each other and we travel a thousand miles to be in that kitchen next to that person, it’s their stories.

It’s the stories that we are living in, the stories of each other that matter most, right?

Every Christmas, every holiday get together. It’s really all about stories.

And when somebody passes from us, when we keep sharing their stories.

They’re never really truly far away.

So the best gift maybe you can give this Christmas, is to hear a story or to tell a story, and I’m counting on all of you to do that.

Can you do that for Santa?

I think they can. Aw, that was beautiful. Thank you so much.

Alright, well as you know, I have to go take care of some reindeer.

Absolutely. Thanks so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Merry Christmas. Thank you.

Merry Christmas. Ho, ho, ho.

I’m Jen Tracy and you’ve been watching the To-Do Show. If you’re curious about how other people tackle their days and honestly who isn’t, there’s another conversation right here that’ll probably surprise you.

Go check it out.

And here’s something interesting. There’s actually research showing that people fall into eight distinct patterns when it comes to how they organize their lives. Productivity and psychology experts like Adam Grant and Gretchen Rubin have been studying this for years.

We built a quiz based on that research, and people keep telling us it’s weirdly accurate.

It takes about five minutes, and you’ll understand why certain systems work for you and why others never stick.

Head to the to do show.com or check the link in the description to take the quiz.

And please, please, please hit subscribe and you can check that off your to-do list.