It was nip and tuck, but in the end, Santa has decided that a virtual Christmas just wasn’t good enough. So, after contacting the best health experts he could and presenting his plan to deliver Christmas gifts around the world in spite of COVID-19, his plans have been approved and he has made his decision.

Santa will deliver on Christmas Eve.

With Santa, safety is foremost — safety for himself while traveling all over the world, safety for his reindeer and safety for all the families in the homes he must visit.

Leave it to Santa to prepare a plan that was acceptable to the experts, because if they denied his request, billions around the world would have been disappointed.

Some of the safety procedures he presented to authorities include:

¯Isolating at his location at the North Pole, which is easy as it includes only Santa, Mrs. Claus and his elves.

¯Making deliveries after all are asleep, to avoid coming in contact with anyone in the homes he visits, especially children and elderly persons.

¯Wearing a facemask whenever entering anyone’s home.

¯Giving Rudolph extra electrolytes to increase the brightness of his red nose, which alerts drivers to pull over and give Santa the right-of-way.

¯Adding an extra section on his sleigh to carry enough hand sanitizer to disinfect after every stop. He will also have room for plenty of extra facemasks — he’ll use a new one after visits to a pre-determined number of homes.

¯Santa also had to show authorities that in spite of the extra time required for proper COVID protocols, that he still could make his rounds without speeding, given the reduced traffic he will encounter by waiting until everyone is asleep before stopping at homes.

All of us at the Franklin County Traffic Safety Board are very pleased with Santa for paying so much attention to safety as he awaits his Christmas Eve journey. We sure wish all drivers would do the same before they head out in their vehicles. As the Coronavirus rages on, we must follow the recommendations of our top health authorities to stem the spread and save lives. When we drive, we should also obey vehicle and traffic laws and pay 100% to the task of driving. By doing this we can stem the carnage on our highways, which kills about 35,000 people in the U.S. every year.

To everyone, from the members of the Traffic Safety Board, have a merry, merry Christmas; and may 2021 be a better year than 2020. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.