Unfortunately Santa doesn’t open up the North Pole in the offseason for a behind-the-scenes look at what takes place in his workshop, but we might have found the next best thing. If the holiday stress and shopping is taking a toll on you this season, just consider taking a holiday timeout to visit the National Christmas Center. There’s no official museum all about Christmas, but this is pretty darn close.

Located in Paradise, Pennsylvania—right in the heart of Amish country—the place is dedicated to preserving and sharing memories of Christmas present and past. We don’t think there's exhibits dedicated to embarrassing holiday sweaters or home movies, but there are 15 different galleries and exhibits—along with a handful of smaller displays. In total there’s like 20,000 square feet of stuff to see and displays to wander through. ]]> kjb 2011-12-09T09:55:08-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/8/123537/660

These days, with so many WiFi-equipped planes criss-crossing the skies, we definitely think twice before booking flights not equipped with it. In-Flight WiFi is just so...integral to keeping our mobile lifestyle moving, but also it's becoming expected. We're happy to report that someone else joins in this thinking—none other than the jolly elf himself, Santa Claus.

Earlier this month, Gogo gave Santa the Christmas gift at the top of his list: an upgrade to the newest ATG-4 onboard internet, including the new media platform to allow Santa to watch movies and TV shows while on those long, transocean crossings on Christmas Eve. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-12-08T12:35:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/12/24/9829/6205

Well, everyone; today is the day. It's the day we can begin "tracking" Santa Claus on his gift-giving journey around the world via NORAD's annual Santa Tracker. There once were days when NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, would just send little Santa travel status update videos to the networks, for them to broadcast during newscasts, but these days things are tad more hi-tech than all that. Santa is being tracked by Google Maps.

Over at the official Santa Tracking website—which is a cute site to let your kids check every so often during Christmas Eve—you can watch grass grow watch as Santa slowly (or pretty quickly, really) makes his way around the world, spending no more than 4 minutes in one place. He's already finished with the Pacific Islands (he got to visit Palau a moment ago), New Zealand, Australia and—from what it looks like—North Korea. As we type this, his butt is getting stuck in some minimalist chimneys around Japan, as he's still got quite a while before he hits North America airspace. ]]> JetSetCD 2010-12-24T09:34:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/12/16/2650/7966

We thought Santa was a myth, because really, who lives at the North Pole? It turns out that we we've just been sending our wish lists to the wrong place. Apparently St. Nick's pad is in Greenland, according to the country's tourism bureau.

More specifically, he lives in a secret castle on top of Santa Claus Mountain in Uummannaq. Greenland is connected to the North Pole by ice, so it makes sense that the big guy would reside in the much-more-livable Greenland.

If you want to get your requests into Santa, go to the post office and send them priority to: "Santa Claus, North Pole, Greenland," and the letter will end up in the world's largest mailbox in Nuuk, the country's capital. Every year, thousands of kiddies and adults from around the world write to Santa, filling up the ginormous red mailbox with letters, candy and trinkets. Letters are emptied on Christmas Eve, when they'll undergo the naughty-or-nice review.]]> Jennifer Kester 2009-12-16T08:40:45-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/24/125712/53

You can't keep a good Santa down! Specifically, a Chinese city's giant sculpture of Santa, well on its way to being built this year despite ever-warming temperatures.

Despite the city of Harbin's proximity to Siberia, the region has been affected by the global (temperature) meltdown: For its annual ice festival, including the 78-foot-tall Santa, officials were forced to make snow just like a ski resort. CO2 trouble notwithstanding, this bad boy is going up to the delight of the 800,000 estimated visitors when the fest opens January 5.

Related Stories:
· Harbin Ice Festival Sweats Under Global Warming [Lost Weekend]
· Let it Snow: China Builds "World's Largest" Ice Santa [Reuters, via Yahoo!]
· Santa Isn't The Only One Who Digs The North Pole [Jaunted]

[Photo of a Harbin Santa in 2004: dennisyee] ]]> egw 2008-12-26T09:45:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/24/94327/233

In a moment of weakness, we were convinced to check out the Norad Santa Tracker. And you know what? Despite our suspicions that it'd be super cheesy, it managed to bring some geographic jolly to our Christmas Eve.

Santa, it seems, really does get everywhere, stopping off at places we know and love, like Sydney, Australia and Kobe, Japan, while also bringing presents to kids in spots we've never even heard of. An extra stocking stuffer goes out to anyone who's heard of Onekotan, Russia before today.

To celebrate Santa's globe wandering, we're taking the rest of the day off and hunkering down with eggnog and presents tomorrow. But we'll be back in full force on Friday to swap holiday horror stories and continue our hats-in-airports obsession. See you then, and merry Christmas!

Related Stories:
· Norad Santa Tracker [Official Site]
· Christmas coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-12-24T13:00:36-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/22/13325/158

Ho ho no! Blue 1--a Finnish budget airline affiliated to SAS Airlines and not to be confused with Romania's Blue Air French-based Blue Line--has made a bunch of British kids really blue this Christmas.

The airline should have carried 160 people in two small planes from Manchester to Santa's home in Finnish Lapland early on Saturday morning, but the passengers were then told there'd be a delay while Blue found a new aircraft. The bigger one they got was then deemed too big to land at Finland's Enontekio airport in bad weather and the whole trip was canceled.

Police had to be called to calm down the screaming children, and angry parents had to explain to their kids that they hadn't been good enough to meet Santa this year after all.

Related Stories:
· Police called after angry parents protest at cancellation of flight to see Santa in Lapland [Daily Mail UK]
· Fury as Santa Trip is Sleighed [SMH]
· Will the Real Santa Please Stand Up? [Jaunted]

[Photo: (stephan)] ]]> amandak 2008-12-23T09:00:37-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/