About 300 years ago, I was on vacation. Mrs. Claus and I decided to visit Europe in the summer for a change. And to help work off all the cookies from the previous Christmas Eve, Mrs. C had the grand idea of biking across the continent. It was a rare sport outside of the cities at that point, so we looked quite ridiculous.

Well, one day, we were biking through the streets of Paris when suddenly, my front wheel got locked in between two cobblestones, and I went flying, head over heels, and over the handlebars, hitting the stones quite roughly. I can’t remember the last time I had such a silly spill.

Mrs. Claus still jokes that I should never fly without my team of eight reindeer. I always land safely when Dasher leads the team. Of course, this was years before Rudolph joined the team, you know.

I picked myself up and brushed myself off. I thought I was fine, but Mrs. Claus insisted I get checked out. Luckily, there was a hospital not far off. So, I surmised it would be easier to go meet the local doctor than to share my desire to keep moving. You think Blitzen is impatient… when my wife puts her mind to a plan, there is no swaying her any way I know how, especially when she worries about the ones she loves.

So, I was in the facility not ten minutes before seeing the doctor. Now that I had a chance to calm down, I realized I did have a skinned knee and just a touch of blood was dripping down the shin. It was nothing; so little, in fact, that had I been wearing my bright red Christmas uniform, no one would have noticed unless it hit the faux fur trimmings.

The doctor took one look at my knee and said, ‘Hello Monsieur Santa Claus, so great to meet you. But what’s this? It appears you have a LE BOO BOO.’

I immediately had the idea for tiny plush characters. We workshopped a few ideas but could never find the right look.

Then, on 12/26/24, I had a dream. We had been struggling with ideas for the new year. I had just laid my head down for my long winter nap when I popped up—quite comically, I might add—and had a Eureka moment.

‘LE BOO BOO! It’s time to bring them back to the table!’ I jotted down a couple of Post-it notes and went back to sleep.

When I woke up ready to start planning 2025, we got to work. We workshopped names, spellings, logo ideas, and product development. At one point the elves started making six-foot-tall characters… I said, ‘NO, I said six inches!’

The rest is history…

😉