Even my kids knew Santa didn't build his workshop on the sea ice.
Look at any depiction of Santa's factories, and note the pine trees in the area, not to mention mountains in many scenes. The geographic North Pole is not a prime construction site. It's possible that the original legend referred to the magnetic North Pole, which was on land through much of the past couple of centuries, although it's rapidly drifting out to sea now.
(It's obvious from the film clip that Santa was coerced to say this stuff.)