More reindeer are needed to help power the test flights of Santa’s sleigh. Santa has reviewed this year’s applicants and all have been accepted into the program. He feels an additional 450 reindeer are needed to keep up with the heavy flight schedule set up for this year’s sleigh.

This is highly unusual news. Normally it is a difficult thing to be assigned to these special teams and yet this year Santa took every applicant into the program – even the young rookie reindeer with no flight experience.

“Test flights are flight experience,” explained Elf Victor, Santa’s head of reindeer operations. “These rookies this year are going to be something really special in the next few years because Santa is giving them very important work right now. I’m very excited for the class of 2021.”

Part of the challenge in finding additional reindeer is just reaching them. At this time of the year reindeer are back in their natural habitat in various places all over the world. Santa has reindeer ranches on every continent but the ranches serve only as a base for reindeer medical needs and as gathering spots for when they prepare to return to the North Pole.

“We have scouts that are out trying to reach the various herds,” said Elf Victor. “But they don’t usually expect to hear from us this early in the year, so finding them is something of a challenge.”

At this point there is not a big concern as there is still plenty of time remaining in the year to get the sleigh tested. We will keep you posted.