Help with North Pole HQ

iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or later, and Apple TV with tvOS 17 or later. It’s one app on the App Store, so the North Pole Pass covers all three, and Family Sharing is included.

Calls and Message Santa are on iPhone and iPad, because they need a microphone and a keyboard. The cams, the Advent Calendar, the Sleigh Tracker and Santa’s Voicemail are on Apple TV.

Tap the gear at the top of the home screen and enter the PIN you chose when you set up North Pole HQ. If you forget it, tap Forgot your PIN? on the PIN screen and answer a question for grown-ups to choose a new one.

Yes. Add each child in the grown-ups’ area with their name, age and the things they love, and whoever’s calling chooses their name before Santa answers. On the free version there’s room for 5 children, each with their own free call every Christmas, and the Pass has room for everyone.

Santa says any name we’ve recorded, and there are more than 1,000 of them. For other names he says “my friend”, with the name written on screen. When you type your child’s name in the grown-ups’ area, it tells you straight away whether Santa can say it.

No. On a call, the microphone only tells when someone’s talking, not what they’re saying, so Santa knows when your child has finished and carries on. It all happens on your phone, and nothing your child says is understood, kept or sent anywhere.

Because Santa never knows the words, everything he says next suits any answer. If you’d rather he didn’t listen at all, switch off Let Santa listen in the grown-ups’ area, under Calls, and he leaves a little gap for your child to answer instead.

Santa can only wait for your child when he’s allowed to listen. In the grown-ups’ area, under Calls, check that Let Santa listen is on, and in your iPhone or iPad’s Settings, under North Pole HQ, check that the microphone is allowed.

With the North Pole Pass, go to the grown-ups’ area, then Schedule. Choose a phone or a video call, and when Santa rings: straight away, in a few minutes, or at a date and time.

For a call in the next few minutes, put the phone down nearby with North Pole HQ open and the phone unlocked, and it rings by itself. For a date and time, allow notifications when you’re asked, as Santa’s call comes through as one.

Yes, if you switch on Keep call recordings in the grown-ups’ area, under Calls. Each call is then kept as sound only, never video: Santa’s voice and your child’s answers. Recordings stay on that device and in your own iCloud backup, and we never receive them. You can play, share or delete them in Calls.

Yes. Switch off Video calls in the grown-ups’ area, under Calls, and every call is a phone call. On a video call your child’s picture appears on their own screen and stays on the device; it’s never recorded or sent anywhere.

While Santa’s out delivering, a call is patched through to the sleigh, so your child hears him from the sky. He’s back by the fire once he’s home on Christmas Day.

From a big library of Santa’s replies inside the app. Your phone picks the reply that fits best, so nothing your child types ever leaves it. The replies are general, so now and then one won’t quite match what your child wrote.

Yes. Chats are saved on the device and in your own iCloud backup, so they move with you to a new phone, and we can never see them. Your child can read them from the clock in Message Santa, and only you can delete them, in the grown-ups’ area under Message Santa, where you can also switch Message Santa off.

On the free version, 5 a day. Santa says goodbye on the last one, and after that the elves’ Elf-o-matic Textmail Service answers until tomorrow. With the North Pole Pass, your child can write as much as they like.

No. Santa never promises presents, in calls or in messages. If your child asks for something, he writes it in his big book and says he never knows what will turn up until Christmas morning, so nobody’s let down.

Each cam opens full screen with its sound on (the button in the corner mutes it). Swipe, or move your phone or iPad, to look around the room, and pinch to look closer. On Apple TV, choose a cam with the remote. Santa’s Fireside is free, and the Pass opens all four.

Door 1 opens on 1 December, and a new door each day after that. Behind each one, Santa tells your child a joke or a North Pole fact, and on Christmas Eve he says goodnight. Doors can be opened on or after their day, so a missed day is never lost.

So Santa can come to your home at midnight and the tracker can show how far away he is. You choose your town or city from a list in the grown-ups’ area. It stays on your own devices and iCloud, and we never ask for your location.

Not if it’s signed in to the same Apple Account as your iPhone or iPad. Your children, your town and your settings come across through your own iCloud, and the Apple TV welcomes them back. The Pass comes across too, from the App Store.

One call with Santa for each child every Christmas, with room for 5 children; Santa’s Fireside cam; the first Advent Calendar door your child opens; 5 messages to Santa a day; and the Sleigh Tracker and countdown. On Apple TV, Santa’s first voicemail is free too.

The North Pole Pass opens everything else for £2.99 for the first year, then £4.99 a year. There are no ads in either.

£2.99 for the first year, then £4.99 a year, in the UK. It’s a yearly subscription through the App Store, it covers iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, and Family Sharing is included.

Any time, through Apple. On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions. On Apple TV, it’s Settings, then Accounts, then Subscriptions. The Pass renews each year unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the year ends, and it carries on until then.

Make sure the device is signed in to the Apple Account that bought the Pass, or is in its Family Sharing group. Then, in the grown-ups’ area, open the North Pole Pass and choose Restore purchases.

Nothing. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking, and your family’s details stay on your own devices and in your own iCloud, where we can’t see them. Our privacy notice has the detail.

No. Santa is for children of all faiths and none, and he never brings up religion. If a child asks him about God or Jesus, he says that families believe different things and that a grown-up they trust can tell them more. A family that doesn’t celebrate Christmas is just as welcome.