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Emily Knapton

Leanna7aml1212_2025-12-12-07-35-46

Christmas came early this year for Stanford. The Holiday Wish Express is back in town. This virtual train ride takes you to the North Pole. I love this news. Leanna Wells is there now, and she's joining us. Oh, it's so festive. Hey Leanna. Hey, good morning, Aisha. It is so festive. First, I'm happy that we're inside and away from the cold, but we're here for some Christmas warmth, so we're at the Holiday Wish Express. I'm so excited to be here. I've never been here before, and the room we're standing in is so significant, which is why I wanna introduce you to the person who runs it all, Phineas Flywheel. Hi Phineas, good morning. Merry Christmas to you and everyone out there. Hello, Merry Christmas. What is your title? What do you do here? Well, um, I am Santa's master toy maker and head of all manufacturing here at the North Pole. That must be a big job. Well, we are in the, we are in crunch time. There's only 13 days until Christmas Eve. Now. What you're around, what around us is this is the toy makers. Lab. This is the Toy Minator 3002.0. It is a megacomputer which is the apex of Christmas technology. Can we see a toy? Oh my goodness, come right over here. Now. Let me explain a little bit of what goes on here. Now a child writes their letter to Santa and asks for a toy, makes a wish. Now we put it in the Wish Transmognifier. Here we go. We put in a brief code 867-5309 and uh pull the switch. Now usually this takes anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds. And if you look carefully. There we have. A toy Ready to be packaged, delivered, and opened on Christmas morning. Now, I believe if I'm correct, this is for a young man named Kevin who's 6 years old, who hails from Wisconsin. So, uh, it's exactly what he wanted. That's nice. And then I saw over here we have the naughty and nice list. Yes, madam, yes, the most important thing about a child at Christmas time is knowing what list they end up on. So what I'm going to have you do is we have the naughty and nice indicator right here. Now I need a little bit. Of your Christmas spirit that I'm just gonna put right inside the machine now. What you need to do is you need to tell the machine, uh, excuse me, I'm talking right now. What you need to tell, would you stop? can I get on with this, please? Thank you. I do apologize. So stand right in front, feet together, hands at your side, chin out, shoulders back, uh, think of your favorite Christmas wish, your wonderful Christmas memory, a moment of kindness that you had in the past year, then wish the machine a merry Christmas. Go ahead. Merry Christmas. Nicely done. Congratulations. Well, we know what list you're on this year. Thank you so much, Aisha. We actually have to go right now. We also have an incoming message from Santa, so I have to hear what he has to say, but I'll see you later coming up at 8. You gotta tell me what Santa says to you. I love this. All right, thanks so much, Leanna.

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Leanna8ab1212_2025-12-12-08-27-35

Christmas coming early this year for Stanford, the Holiday Wish Express is back in town. This virtual train ride takes you all the way to the North Pole, and News So's Leanna Wells is there now showing us how festive and beautiful it looks. How's it going, Leanna? You feeling the Christmas spirit? Hey Aisha, this makes me feel like a kid again festive and bright it definitely is. I'm in a new section actually. We have the post office to my left, Santa's nice list over here, uh, outgoing packages, incoming letters, and earlier you said you wanted to know what Santa said. He actually just wanted to make sure things were running smoothly and speaking of running smoothly, we're gonna come over here to the. Library to meet the man who makes sure everything is operating as it should, the COO of the North Pole, Professor Christmas. Hello Leanna, nice to see you and welcome, welcome to the Holiday Wish Express. Yes, you're looking at the brand new North Pole Post Office and the fabulous North Pole library. Oh, the elves worked so hard building this over the time. In fact, I'd like to thank Elf Eva for all of her hard work. Come, come inside, please, Leanna. Thank you. Yes, welcome, welcome, welcome. This is where I bring the children to give them a little more background about the history of Christmas. I tell them stories. I ask them questions. In fact, all right, Leanna, big question, who is that? Picture of above the mantel. Santa, of course, of course it is. You're a brilliant young woman, but let me ask you another question. Do you know any other names for Santa? Saint Nick, Saint Nicholas, excellent. How about Kris Kringle? That's how I know him. I've been working with Chris for over 100 years, making sure the right toys get to the right children. In fact, he. Oh, I'm sorry, the phone is ringing. He never leaves me alone. You hear that phone ringing. Oh, I'm sorry, of course you don't hear the phone. You're not an elf. Yes, I am an elf. You seem skeptical. Well, that's because I don't really look like an elf, because I'm half elf and half Italian. Hello, Santa. Yes, she's all grown up. Look at her working in television. Yes, yes, yes. I'm sorry? She did what Oh, I see. All right, Santa, I'll tell her. Mm. Well, Leona, that was Santa, and apparently you are on the nice list. Yes, congratulations, but he wanted me to remind you. That there's still a couple of weeks left before Christmas and a couple of more weeks here at the holiday wish leading right into Christmas Eve, so you'd better watch out. You'd better not cry. You know you'd better not pout, of course. All right, Leanna, I know you know the rest. I do, and I'm gonna try not to mess it up. Aisha. I hope you're on the nice list as well, but I'm gonna send it back to you in Stamford, Leanna Wells, News 12, Connecticut. You know, I truly hope I am too. There's some presents that I definitely need. Leanna, thank you.

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The virtual train ride that whisks you away to the North Pole.

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