My 10-year-old son had a friend over this Sunday morning and we were all sitting down at the breakfast table talking when the question of how Santa really could possibly to get to all those houses in one night. We batted around the idea of teleportation and time travel. Eventually, I suggested that I think that because of the costs of feeding and caring for the reindeer year-round, the maintenance on the sleigh not to mention the costs associated with the workshop, Santa might do well to outsource it to all the parents. Give them $100 per kid and he and Mrs. Claus could just hang out and not have to deal with the headache of managing such a large operation.

We then talked about whether or not he was following the proper labor laws with the elves. Are they getting breaks? Is he truly paying them a fair wage? My husband maintains that they are volunteers and voluntarily live and work at the North Pole. I say that sounds more liked forced slave labor. I also wonder about the true age of some of these elves.

I also maintain that there’s no way he can do this for free. This whole Christmas thing is really popular. I bet he gets a cut off of it somehow.

We finally decided that without knowing the true labor laws and taking a deeper look into the old guy’s financials we couldn’t properly make a determination. Perhaps we need to ask to see his tax filings? Hmmm…

What? Okay. Fine. What do YOU talk about at the breakfast table, eh?