While the test flights of Santa’s sleigh continue over the Pacific this week designers in the Research and Development Department are contemplating new colors for Santa’s sleigh this year.

The test flights focus on the function of Santa’s sleigh. But the final look of the sleigh, including the colors of it, are a last detail that many do not think about.

The truth is that they try to make Santa’s sleigh look unique every year.

Santa, as you know, loves the color red and it is always used on the sleigh in some way. Some years it is the dominating color, while other years red is more of an accent or a highlight.

Shades of red are used as well.

Elf Gerald Knudsen is a sleigh designer who specializes in paints and colors that are used on Santa’s sleigh. He tells me that he has already spoken with Santa about the look for this year’s sleigh and he’s very excited because for the first time Santa has agreed to let him try using the color black on the sleigh.

Gerald says most of the time the colors focus on red, dark green and gold. Some years he has been able to use white a little bit and once he was able to use the color purple. But never the color black.

Black will not be the primary color of the sleigh, Gerald says. It will be an accent color. But he feels black will allow the other colors of the sleigh, specifically the red and the gold, to take on more importance.

Gerald tells me his favorite design so far utilizes a black underside with dark green trimmed in gold on the sides. Then he said he’ll put “Santa red” on the front and the back. He also said lights this year will be something many will find surprising about Santa’s sleigh.

I’m not sure what he meant by that but I can tell you Elf Gerald knows what he is doing. Everyone goes to him for paint jobs. I know it will look awesome.

We’ll keep you posted.

A new sleigh will be built for Santa in 2022 but it will re-use the design developed last year, it was announced today.

Santa’s record-breaking flight from last Christmas is largely the reason for this decision. Santa met with design teams and flight analysts over the past several weeks to discuss the sleigh’s flaws and room for improvement. It was decided that the sleigh performed at such a high level that not many design changes would be needed.

That means the plans and the timeline for the development of Santa’s new sleigh for 2022 will be very different than in year’s past.

Last year, the first four months of the year were busy with design prototypes. Santa and the Research and Development Department spent so much time evaluating different designs that a test flight schedule had to be started in early June. That will not be necessary this year.

While a new test flight schedule has not yet been set it is expected that test flights of Santa’s sleigh for 2022 will begin much later this year.

We will keep you posted of the details of construction of Santa’s new sleigh. In the meantime, Santa’s sleigh from last year has been moved to the North Pole Sleigh Museum. Visitors will be able to see the new sleigh exhibit beginning in March.