What Does Santa Do the Rest of the Year? His Calendar, From January to December

What does Santa do after Christmas?

First, he goes home. The oldest detailed account of his daily life, “The Wonders of Santa Claus,” printed in the 1857 Christmas issue of Harper's Weekly, has him skate home once the presents are delivered, “with his nose a little chilled.” In L. Frank Baum's 1902 story, the reindeer must be back in their forest by daybreak: the route ends with the night.

The same 1857 story describes a trip that would wear out any traveler. The saint goes by sea, by land and sometimes through the air, by balloon, ship or sleigh. He starts in Amsterdam, heads on to France, then goes from Ireland all the way to America. After a night like that, skating home almost sounds like a vacation.

Then he rests, but not for long. In other countries, gift season isn't over yet. In Italy, La Befana comes on the night of January 5, the eve of Epiphany, and fills good children's stockings with sweets. All the winter visitors are introduced in Christmas gift bringers around the world.

1. JanuaryBack to the village, workshop inventory, the first thank-you letters.
2. MarchSleigh and harness overhaul while the reindeer see out the end of winter.
3. MayReindeer calves are born; on May 9, the arrival of Saint Nicholas's relics in Bari is remembered.
4. JulyWorld Santa Claus Congress at Bakken, near Copenhagen.
5. NovemberSaint Nicholas arrives in the Netherlands; the Santa Secretariat in Libourne reopens.
6. DecemberSaint Nicholas Day on the 6th, wrapping, then the route on the 24th.

Does Santa get letters all year?

Yes, and some post offices never close. Santa Claus' Main Post Office in Rovaniemi, on the Arctic Circle, is open all year. Since 1985 it has received more than 15 million letters from 198 countries, and everything sent from it carries a special Arctic Circle postmark. In 2014, according to Wikipedia, the most letters came from China, Italy and Poland.

In January the letters change tone. Nobody is asking anymore; children say thank you, describe what they got and sometimes get a head start on next year. Santa's addresses, from Lapland to Greenland to Canada's H0H 0H0 postal code, are gathered in where does Santa Claus live.

In the United States, the small town of Santa Claus, Indiana, has had its own post office since 1856. Residents first asked for the name Santa Fe, and the postal authorities told them to choose something else. Volunteers known as Santa's Elves have answered children there since at least 1914. The full story of that mail is in the history of letters to Santa.

In the village the rule is simple: a letter that arrives in February gets read just like one that arrives on December 20. You can write yours anytime on our letter to Santa page, even in the middle of August.

What happens at the North Pole in spring?

Spring is calving season. A study published in 2013 in the scientific journal Rangifer by Eigil Reimers, Mauri Nieminen and Diress Tsegaye followed 139 adult semi-domesticated female reindeer in 2008 and 2009. Between May 5 and June 2, every calf was born and every female shed her antlers. On average, nursing mothers dropped their antlers about seven days after giving birth.

That detail matters for the big night: the females keep their antlers until spring. Whether Santa's reindeer are female is looked at in where did Santa's reindeer come from, and the team's names are in Santa's reindeer names.

In L. Frank Baum's 1902 story, the reindeer spend only one night a year with Santa. The rest of the time they live in the Forest of Burzee under the protection of the Fairy Queen, eat plants with strange names, casa, grawle and marbon, and bathe in the Pool of Nares. Plenty of us would sign up for that kind of retirement.

May has its own feast day, too. The ecumenical martyrology of the Monastery of Bose notes that Saint Nicholas, honored on December 6, the day he died in 343, is also remembered on May 9, the day his body was moved to Bari, Italy. The math on Santa's age from those dates is in how old is Santa Claus.

What does Santa do in the summer?

He meets his helpers. Every July since 1957, Bakken, an amusement park just north of Copenhagen, Denmark, has hosted the World Santa Claus Congress. In 2015 The Local counted more than a hundred people dressed as Santa or as *Julemanden*, the Danish Santa, there for a three-day program: a boat trip, a parade through the city, the traditional dip at Bellevue Beach and a Santa pentathlon in the park.

In 2019 Euronews covered the 62nd congress, which opened on Monday, July 22, for four days. Santas had come from as far away as Japan and El Salvador, and they went to greet tourists at the Little Mermaid statue. The program also included open-air shows and an obstacle course race.

America's summer has a permanent Christmas address. In Santa Claus, Indiana, Louis J. Koch opened a park called Santa Claus Land on August 3, 1946. It became Holiday World in 1984, then Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in 1993, and the Koch family still owns it. According to Wikipedia, it draws more than a million visitors a year.

When does the workshop start up again?

As soon as the lists come in. The workshop has been in the pictures since 1866: that year Thomas Nast published “Santa Claus and His Works” in Harper's Weekly, with captions naming the workshop, the stable and the behavior ledger. In the fall, each of those departments speeds up. Every elf's job is described in who are Santa's elves.

November is the real kickoff. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat on the first Saturday after November 11. In France, La Poste reopens its Santa Secretariat in Libourne: in 2025 its 60 elves went back to work on November 19, and children had until December 20 to write and get an answer before Christmas. That year the writer and filmmaker Nicolas Vanier lent Santa his pen.

In Canada, fall is postal elf season too. In 2013 Canada Post expected more than a million letters and counted 9,000 volunteers, current and retired employees, ready to answer in more than 30 languages, Braille included. The program has been running since 1982 and had already received more than 21.8 million letters.

• September and October: the first lists arrive, and wood and paint get ordered.
• November: the workshop runs at full speed, and the reindeer go back into training.
• Early December: wrapping, tags, and a check of the nice detector records.
• December 1: the village Advent calendar opens.

What's December like at the North Pole?

December starts with a family celebration. The 6th is Saint Nicholas Day, the ancestor Santa got his name from. In Lorraine, in eastern France, children find an orange and a gingerbread that morning, and the city of Nancy holds its big parade. France's official tourism site notes that the parade is part of a festival running from late November to early January, and that in Alsace the saint brings good children clementines and gingerbread. The bishop of Myra's story is in who was Saint Nicholas.

Then comes the home stretch. On the evening of the 24th the sleigh takes off, and since 1955 the flight has been tracked every year. That year a Sears ad in Colorado Springs printed, by mistake, the number of Colonel Harry Shoup's red phone at the air defense command. His airmen answered the children, and the tradition never stopped. You can follow the route on our Santa tracker.

And on the morning of the 25th, the cycle starts over. To find out how he manages the whole route in one night, read how does Santa deliver presents in one night. To visit in the meantime, the village is open all year, with its own map.