The time nears for Santa to begin his yearly round-the-world trek. In just four short nights, Santa will pack his sleigh, amass his elves, hitch his reindeer, and kick off what is sure to be a night of intense world travel. As children sleep below him with visions of sugarplums and snow dancing in their heads, Santa has to do a lot of work. Millions of children, naughty and nice alike have submitted their Christmas wishes. Santa and his elves have spent the year deliberating whether children are deserving of presents, and have all requests prepared and ready. For Santa, this is the day he and Mrs. Claus have been waiting for. While it only happens once a year, the hopes and dreams of millions of children (and sometimes adults) rely on him getting presents down the chimney and under the tree in time for Christmas morning. From Sidney to Stockholm to San Francisco, Santa has to contend with many different types of weather. It is summer in the Southern hemisphere so the weather is nice and balmy, while here in the Northern hemisphere, we just celebrated the first day of winter, and much of the globe is blanketed in snow and freezing temperatures. How can Santa be prepared for all these disparate weather conditions? With the help of a weather monitoring interactive voice response system of course! Santa (or more likely the elves) could call into this IVR based on where they were set to descend, and gauge from there whether they needed to deploy the sleigh’s defrosters or air conditioning. The IVR system would allow the elves to check on weather reports anywhere in the world, so that they could be prepared for inclement weather conditions wherever they were next landing. Santa and the elves would never be surprised by a rain or snowstorm, and could instead focus on delivering all of those presents to the millions below awaiting them on Christmas morning!
