Loading Santa's Sack: A Guide for Good Elves

The worst feeling in the world is arriving at a Christmas party without a gift for a child who is expecting one. Santa has a magical plan to avoid ever forgetting a present!

So I closed my eyes and traveled to the North Pole, to see how the experts in loading Santa's gift sack deal with this problem on a worldwide scale.

The elves had their tiny elf planners snug in their mittens! 

Let's take a peek at their plan for making sure all the gifts arrive at the right place, on time, for Christmas.

1. First, they list all the gifts and check them off as they buy and wrap them.

2. Then they add a code for each household or Christmas party that Father Christmas intends to visit. (B, L, and Z, using family name initials, in the example.)

3. Finally, they count the gifts attached to each code, and note the number of gifts (along with a short list of recipients) headed to each party on the weekly spread in their little green and red planners.

When it's time to pack Santa's big red sacks, the elves simply make sure that the right number of gifts go into each bag. The multiple, shorter lists are worth it because they eliminate stress on the day of the party.

Before I came home from my amazing snowy trip, I ate one of Mrs. Claus's special Christmas cookies. They were amazing, y'all.

Ho ho ho!

Etcetera.