I HAD A DREAM. I WOKE UP SCREAMING.
I had a dream. One of those dreams where everything is finally going to be done properly. Well, not exactly.
In the dream, I do not remember exactly how it started, but I was tasked with modernizing Santa’s entire operation. Not just one part. Everything. Wishes became CRM. The workshop became MES. Inventory, logistics, timing, routing, feedback loops. Sensors. Connectivity. Context. The whole Santa operations value chain, end to end, no excuses, 356 days with a very strict deadline. Very strict, all or nothing – Christmas 2025.
Yes, I know, it is already the second half of December. No pressure.
I wrote that I woke up screaming. Now you know why.
But in my dreams, I nodded confidently. “Sure. No problem. Easy.”
Let me define what the SenLab meaning of “Easy” is. It means: “Doable in a specific time”. We are sure it is doable, but not necessarily how. And we know that it should be done. Till Christmas. No pressure, because I have a slight feeling of what MES is, I speak “inventory” for years, timing is a very elastic term, etc.
Then I woke up screaming. Not so “Easy”. Because even in my dreams I realized: this is a Mission Impossible (part 1, 2, … just choose yours). The kind of mission that only Chuck Norris can accept without blinking. Maybe Tom Cruise as a backup, and of course Santa himself – because Santa has been doing impossible things quietly for a very long time.
And he asks me for help. Me! “Can you please find someone more qualified, please?” My self-esteem went south (or north for readers from Down Under). Down in any case.
As I was still recovering from the cold sweat of operational responsibility, Santa appeared. Not dramatically. Not in a cloud of snow. Not popped out of the chimney. Just… there. Leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, petting my secretary, Lily (c’mon, DO NOT think that – she is a cat), smiling in that way that says he’s been watching this panic for a while. What panic?
And he looked tired. I gave him a glass of milk, 1.5% fat, lactose free. I need to take care of his health after all. He is an old man, at least older than me. He didn’t look happy about my milk choice.
“Relax,” he said. “We’re not doing all of it.”
I relaxed a bit, but still: “Not all of it???”
I started to protest. Sensors! Controllers! Protocols! Communications! UNS, CRM! MES! Smart Data Models! Brokers, Data, Space!
He raised a finger.
“Just the sleigh .”
EASY. JUST THE SLEIGH.
And that’s when I understood. You don’t modernize Christmas by touching everything. You modernize Christmas by touching the one place where failure is not poetic.
The sleigh. The one night and one run.
Billions of chimneys, billions of time windows, very precisely stacked and planned. The place and time where magic stops being charming and starts being risky. Not my normally used strategy with KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple) and not with my favorite Pareto principle: invest 20% of work and get 80% of the results. Not this time. This is serious business.
“Focus, Jure, focus! No pressure.”
Therefore, we left the workshop warm and chaotic. We left the elves slightly disorganized on purpose. We left kids’ wishes romantic, handwritten (well, not anymore – now written with iPads and AI), and occasionally unrealistic. We didn’t even think about MES and ERP (luckily for me, MES sometimes becomes MESS). Christmas stayed Christmas.
But the sleigh? The sleigh stopped guessing.
At this point, I realized we needed structure. Not technology-first, not solutions-first, but tasks. Clear tasks, broken into subtasks. Luckily, we use a great task manager in our company – ClickUp – so it was at least manageable.
O.K. We will use FIWAREBox with SandBoxOS on some edge device. And some sensors. And .... But I still wonder.
We also needed to define backup plans. Santa has been doing this long enough to know one thing: if something can fail, it eventually will. Not loudly, not spectacularly – usually at the worst possible moment and in the most boring way. So every part of the sleigh has a quiet backup. Nothing heroic. Just options.
THE TASKS
DEFINE THE BOUNDARIES (WHAT WE DO NOT TOUCH)
Before touching the sleigh, we wrote things down. What stays magical. What must never blink, beep, or update firmware (especially THIS!) on Christmas Eve. For this, no technology was needed – just discipline, shared understanding, and a place to argue politely on Slack.
Tools used:
ClickUp for tasks, subtasks, checklists, notes, documentation; Slack for communication (yes, proprietary – Santa frowned but accepted it. He is all for FOSS, but for this one task he allowed a small compromise).
Backup plan:
If planning tools or task lists fail, Santa falls back to the oldest backup system of all: written rules and memory. The boundaries are simple enough to survive without software. Magic never depended on SaaS anyway. Or DNS.
DEFINE THE SLEIGH AS A SYSTEM (NOT A VEHICLE)
Once boundaries were clear, we had to agree on what the sleigh actually is. A sleigh is not a vehicle. Not a toy. Repeat after me: a sleigh is not a vehicle. It is a highly complicated autonomous system. A one-night system with no retries. This was less about technology and more about alignment. It should work even if Cloudflare is down.
Tools used:
ClickUp (still) for mind maps, shared documents (I admit, still searching for a good replacement for diagrams). Slack for communication. No code was written. No sensors installed. Just clarity.
Backup plan:
If diagrams, documents, or planning tools disappear, the sleigh still operates based on a shared understanding agreed long before takeoff. The backup here is alignment, not tooling.
INTERNAL SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
Santa does not want numbers. He wants confidence. The sleigh quietly keeps an eye on itself so nothing unexpected sneaks up in the middle of the night.
Tools used:
Basic load and balance sensors, motion and stability sensors, temperature sensors. All open-hardware-friendly. Maybe some cameras. No, no cameras – we will have problems with GDPR. No brands on display.
Backup plan:
If sensors misbehave or data becomes unreliable, Santa trusts redundancy and experience. Multiple signals confirm the same thing, and if they disagree, Santa slows down instead of guessing.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION & EVENT FLOW
Inside the sleigh, everything learned to speak politely. Only when something changed. Only when it mattered. No shouting, no constant chatter. Just quiet internal messages flowing between the things that mattered. Weight. Balance. Readiness. Visibility. Everything spoke only when it had something useful to say. To publish. And everyone or everything in need of any information subscribes to the channel providing this information. If you want to call it MQTT, you can.
Santa just called it FKWGO. Please do not try to say it out loud in public, but it means: “Finally Knowing What’s Going On.”
Tools used:
Lightweight publish/subscribe messaging with an MQTT-compatible broker (FOSS) from the FIWAREBox Application Market. I opted for EMQ.
Backup plan:
If the internal messaging backbone fails, the sleigh degrades gracefully to direct signals and minimal communication. Fewer messages, more silence, slower pace. Calm beats speed. A second lightweight broker from the FIWAREBox toolbox stands by, cold and quiet, just in case.
POSITIONING & NAVIGATION AWARENESS, CONTEXT
EXTERNAL
Santa always knew where he was in a poetic sense. This just helped him know it in a practical one, especially when rooftops started to look suspiciously similar.
Positioning was next. Santa has always known roughly where he was. Continents. Countries. Cities. But rooftops are getting complicated. So the sleigh learned precision. GNSS, fused with inertial sensors, enough intelligence to say: this house, this roof, this chimney. Not the decorative one. Not the pizza oven. The actual, usable entry point.
We even added AI. Not that it was really needed, but these days everyone adds it. So did we. Just to be modern, and maybe, just maybe, for some cases it is useful.
Chimneys, it turns out, are not a universal standard. Some are fake (and they use heat pumps). I am all for the environment, but there are no romantic stories around heat pumps. They cannot make a heat pump with a nice, round, not very narrow chimney? Nuts.
Some chimneys are blocked. Some exist purely for architectural optimism. So we mapped them properly. OpenStreetMap style. Not Google Maps – we support FOSS. Houses became more than dots on a map. They became context: children, access constraints, roof geometry, safe approach vectors. This is where FIWAREBox slipped in quietly, not as a product, not as a brand, but to keep facts connected without turning Christmas into a control room. Context without clutter.
Approach and landing stopped being a moment of hope and became a moment of confidence. The sleigh didn’t land like an aircraft; it performed a chimney approach, more like a drone, guided gently in the final meters so Santa didn’t have to hover awkwardly and pretend it was part of the tradition. It still felt like instinct. It was just instinct with information.
Tools used:
GNSS receivers (multi-constellation), inertial sensors, OpenStreetMap with real-time location. All interoperable. All replaceable. FIWARE Data Catalog with all needed informations.
Backup plan:
If precise positioning becomes unreliable due to weather or signal issues, Santa falls back to inertial navigation and pre-known city patterns. Slower routes, wider margins, no sharp manoeuvres. Magic hates sharp manoeuvres anyway.
HOUSE, ROOF & CHIMNEY CONTEXT MANAGEMENT
A house is not a point. It is a story with geometry. Chimneys vary wildly, some even pretending not to exist. Context mattered.
Tools used:
OpenStreetMap data with an additional chimney layer with all needed metadata (FIWAREBox Data Catalog – up to date, VERY IMPORTANT!). Smart Data Models with our Santa data model. NGSI-LD entities managed via FIWAREBox.
No Google Maps. Santa insists on FOSS.
Backup plan:
If context data is incomplete or outdated, Santa defaults to conservative assumptions: skip risky roofs, use safe drop alternatives, or return later. No chimney is better than the wrong chimney.
INTERNAL
I really hoped that Santa is good with internal positioning and navigation, because this is not the sleigh problem anymore. BLE beacons are OK, but they are not very precise, and BLE gateways with fixed positions need to be installed beforehand, put into maps, and involve a lot of logistics. Santa has no time to install them during summer.
Tools used:
Just Santa’s memory and good orientation skills. No BLE beacons – too complicated.
Backup plan:
None. “It is up to you, Santa! Good luck!”
FINAL APPROACH & PRECISION MANEUVERING
The last meters were never about speed. They were about calm. This task simply made sure Santa didn’t have to improvise while hovering.
Tools used:
Short-range distance sensors, proximity sensing, assisted guidance logic. Still Santa’s hands. Just better information.
Backup:
If short-range guidance fails, Santa switches to manual approach with increased clearance. The sleigh is designed to tolerate hesitation. Christmas is not a race.
RUDOLPH & REINDEER TEAM OPERATIONS
Rudolph stayed Rudolph. We just helped him help others when visibility was bad and snow got ambitious.
Rudolph, of course, remained Rudolph. The nose stayed iconic. We just gave it a discreet operational mode. A remotely controlled LED beacon that could cut through fog, snow, and confusion without ever looking like a flashlight taped to a reindeer. It still looked like magic. It just behaved like safety.
Tools used:
Health and readiness sensors (no EEG for Rudolph – too much data to process), visibility indicators, remote control for Rudolph’s nose (FOSS firmware, obviously), replacement Shelly or Philips bulb (if Rudolph catches a cold).
Magic preserved. Safety improved.
Backup plan:
If any operational signal from Rudolph or the team becomes unavailable, Santa treats visibility as reduced and switches to “bad weather rules.” Slower flight, higher altitude, more patience. Rudolph still shines. Just less helpfully.
TIME, SEQUENCING & NIGHT PLAN MANAGEMENT
Christmas is not fast. It is precise. The sleigh learned when to wait, when to move, and when silence mattered more than efficiency.
Tools used:
Time synchronization services, simple scheduling components from FIWAREBox (Node-RED).
No countdown clocks. No stress.
Backup plan:
If schedules drift or predictions become unreliable, Santa abandons optimization and switches to priority-based delivery. Critical stops first, low-risk areas later. Rhythm over precision.
AIRSPACE & EXTERNAL TRAFFIC COORDINATION
Santa still owns the night sky emotionally. Practically, he now avoids misunderstandings.
Even the sky was no longer taken for granted. The sleigh didn’t ask permission to exist, but it did communicate intent. Quietly. Respectfully. Enough to avoid surprises, misunderstandings, and awkward explanations involving radar screens and disbelief.
Tools used:
Minimal position broadcasting, open traffic and airspace feeds. As a backup, GBFS-R where applicable.
Just enough communication to stay invisible.
Backup plan:
If live airspace information disappears, Santa assumes the sky is hostile and behaves accordingly: higher altitude, simpler routes, fewer transitions. This is how he flew before anyone had radar. It worked.
ENERGY & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Energy was never meant to be a topic of conversation. It just had to be there.
Tools used:
Energy monitoring sensors, load-aware power distribution, redundant power paths.
Santa never checks battery levels. Ever. Because it has unlimited power. Magic.
Backup plan:
If primary energy systems show signs of failure, Santa switches to reduced-consumption mode: fewer lights, smoother acceleration, no unnecessary hovering. But honestly, it seems its power source is unlimited, so this probably won’t happen.
As a last resort, the sleigh carries emergency reserves – old-school, reliable, and very uninteresting to talk about.
SANTA-CENTERED CONTROL & DECISION SUPPORT
Technology never tells Santa what to do. It simply makes sure he never has to guess.
Tools used:
Minimal control interfaces, physical controls over screens (Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW et al – I am looking at you), simple decision hints, no 40-inch screens with dashboards.
Santa remains Santa.
Backup plan:
If interfaces or decision hints fail, Santa flies manually. Always. The sleigh is never allowed to reach a state where Santa cannot take full control. This backup is mandatory.
OBSERVABILITY: DASHBOARDS, ALERTS & LOGS
Visibility exists, but politely. One calm view. Rare interruptions. Memory without judgment.
Tools used:
FIWAREBox Grafana dashboards (hidden under the blankets), event-based logging and alerting (Prometheus, Loki).
Nothing flashy. Nothing noisy.
Backup plan:
If dashboards go dark and alerts fall silent, the sleigh continues based on direct awareness only. Logs can wait. Christmas cannot. Post-analysis is optional. Safe delivery is not.
EXCEPTION HANDLING & GRACEFUL FAILURE
Things go wrong. The sleigh needed to react without drama.
Tools used:
Rule-based fallback logic, manual override paths, simple retry mechanisms.
No heroics required.
Backup plan:
If automated fallback rules fail, Santa defaults to the simplest option: skip, mark, return later. No forcing. No stubbornness. Christmas forgives delays, not mistakes.
POST-NIGHT REVIEW & LEARNING
After Christmas, when the world sleeps, Santa reflects.
Tools used:
Logs, simple analytics, notes, and summaries.
No KPIs. Santa won’t read this, but what kind of IT company are we without flashy reports, dashboards, and logs?
Backup plan:
Not really needed – experience still counts.
INTEGRATION & CONTEXT BACKBONE
All facts stayed connected, even when systems changed. This was the quiet backbone holding everything together.
Tools used:
FIWAREBox Context Broker, time-series database, SPARQL.
Invisible. Replaceable. Reliable.
Backup plan:
If the integration layer becomes unavailable, systems isolate gracefully. No cascading failures. No global collapse. Each part knows enough to continue safely on its own.
FIWAREBox is designed for this. Santa insisted.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT & CITY MOBILITY (NEW BACKUP DIMENSION)
If the sleigh needs help moving through dense cities or battery levels become a concern, Santa listens to city mobility streams.
Tools used:
• GTFS for planned night transport
• GTFS-RT for what is actually running
• GBFS for bikes, e-bikes, scooters
If flying is loud, risky, or inefficient, Santa borrows the city’s rhythm quietly and disappears again.
FINAL BACKUP: THE RULE OF RESTRAINT
If everything fails at once, Santa does the one thing no system can replace.
He slows down.
Because the final backup plan is not technology.
It is knowing when not to push.
THE FINAL RULE: TECHNOLOGY MUST DISAPPEAR
The most important tool was knowing when to stop. If technology is felt, it failed. If Christmas feels calm, it worked.
TIMING
The most important thing: timing.
Timing became a companion instead of an enemy. Not speed, but rhythm. The sleigh knew when a house was risky because someone was still awake (I am still working on the sensors’ setup), when a dog was likely sleeping near the fireplace, when silence mattered more than speed. Not surveillance. Just notes accumulated over years of experience, finally respected instead of remembered vaguely.
CONCLUSION
And through all of this, Santa never stopped being Santa. He still flew. He still disappeared into the night. The bells still rang. The story still worked.
The difference was subtle, almost invisible – the sleigh stopped relying only on miracles.
Before Santa left, he turned back and said one last thing:
“Next year, you can look at the rest.”
Then he smiled.
“But only if you promise not to touch the magic.”
THE REAL LESSON
And that, I realized, was the real lesson.
You don’t modernize Christmas by replacing wonder - you modernize it by protecting wonder from unnecessary risk.
So yes, I had a dream. Yes, I woke up screaming.
But now I know why Santa is the only one who can pull this off. Because he knows exactly where to use magic…
and exactly where not to.
Also, luckily for me, it was just a dream and just touching some points. I was not forced to jump into the rabbit hole of wired and wireless protocols, standards, and all that stuff.
CONSTRAINTS (THE REAL ONES)
I can hear you screaming:
1. MQTT is not that fast (more than 100k events/s is difficult to achieve), you cannot publish so many topics, the context broker is even slower, you do know what you are talking about.
2. An edge device is a simple device, not meant to cover the whole sleigh system.
3. 5G communications are fast, but you will need 9G for that.
4. Database – aaa… how many records? How many QPS?
5. Node-RED is not for critical operations!!
6. …
I know. I know. I told you: I had a dream.
And even in real life, Santa is still using magic, and with magic these problems are not real problems anymore. Magic.
Guys, it is Christmas time. Let it go. Allow magic to help you.
Merry Christmas! 🎄
Jure