Fame

You might not think so, but Santa's popularity and fame does present its own problems...

Preparedness

While Santa is out on his rounds, he gets all the support he could possibly need. In some cases, it's simply a matter of one of the staff being alert to potential problems...

Pets = Family

Sigh.

My cats (Elf and Radar) are industriously involved in a rousing game of "ambush": one of them will go 'hide' somewhere, and the other will wander around in search of the first. When found, the one that was hiding gets to chase the searcher for a little while before they swap roles.

It's usually somewhat noisy game, and I just caught myself telling them "If you two don't knock it off, you're both going to bed without supper!"

Yeah, pets are family, alright...

Santa's personnel problems (Part 2)

On the plus side, some of the problems that Santa runs into are easier to deal with than others. In fact, some of them actually turn out to be non-issues, as it were --

Old technology

It doesn't always work out that Santa is able to find all the places he's going as easily and quickly as he'd like...

Mrs. Claus

As busy as Santa and the rest are during Christmas, and the days leading up to it, Mrs. Claus has her share of problems, too...

My cat is a perv...

Radar, the kitten I got as an emergency backup cat, has turned into some kind of pervert.

It seems that I can't make vertical use of the commode without her not only following me into the bathroom, but jumping up on the commode to watch as I take care of things; she particularly likes to watch the water swirl around when I flush.

Having an audience while I go about my business is one thing -- but I get nervous when she starts eyeing my dangly bits...

Santa's personnel problems (Part 1)

As previously mentioned, some of the crew up at Santa's Workshop have what might politely be called "issues".

Another problem that some of them experience is loneliness, which cropped up last year...

Out in the toolies

One of the things about Santa Claus' operations is that it's way the hell out in the toolies -- so far, in fact, that they don't even have a Starbucks.

As you might expect, living in that kind of isolation means that Santa and his staff are pretty much on their own outside of Christmas. That results in some of them developing their own little... foibles, as shown: