Meet the locals

 Our intrepid explorers got to meet everyone... mainly because everyone insisted on meeting them...

There was Santa himself, of course. Plus his wife Mary, housekeeper Miss Scarlet, cook Mrs White and parlour maid Arriety. Arriety was the only Halfling in the village - most of the population were humans, goblins and elves. 

These are some of the people who worked in the workshops. Igor, the foreman, wasn't born in the village - Santa found him, badly injured, outside a burning castle.Elves and humans formed the majority of the workshop staff. Santa explained that the only difference between elves and goblins was that elves were a pinkish colour, goblins had green skin.

 

Evan was a sort of... well, no one really knows what his job is, but it's very important. Seen here with the nightwatchman/lamplighter and blacksmith.

 

The apothecary and his wife used to spend their time looking after the health of the villagers. And making sure that punch bowl was always topped up during festivals and parties. There were a lot of festivals and parties in the villge. This made them very busy, popular and important!

The toy soldier company guarded the village but mainly marched up and down the street  during festvals and parades. They were also available to hire for private parties. One of then only had one leg, but he was away visiting relatives.

Some villagers weren't present, but those who were all said hello!

Then there were other visitors to the village. They were all connected to children and acted as 'go-betweens' between Santa and the world. The Beadle was in charge of an orphanage; he was a very nice man who looked after the children under his care very well. The Old Lady didn't live in a conventional house. She had a lot of children (and grandchildren). Then there was the Governess. She usually went around carrying a brolly but seems to have misplaced it at the moment.

Santa and his household lived in the Tower House. He had an office there where he and his wife handled all the paperwork. There were two workshops behind his house. The smaller one was where the blacksmith plied his trade whilst the larger one was where a lot of the other toys were made and painted - though other toys were made and painted as a cottage industry in the homes of the villagers. Of courses, the houses and workshops were always a lot bigger on the inside than they were on the outside.

The village didn't have a postbox as such. Instead, letters sent to Santa would magically appear in the postbox where Mary Claus would collect them to be read and acted on. It was magic so however many letters were received it was never full.

 It still left a lot to be explained. For a start... the North Pole isn't in Antarctica. 'Never was a village at the North Pole. Pure fairy tales. Used to be one in Lapland but the area started to get crowded so we relocated. And penguins are a lot friendlier than polar bears.'

 Explanations over, they all decided to have a party. It was a very jolly affair and no one seems to have taken any photos of it...