We have cable and satellite television. We have the Internet and access to it from almost every electronic device in our house, in our cars and even on our physical persons. However, despite the wealth of information at our fingertips, many adults simply lack a firm understanding of the basic facts about Santa Claus. This is a problem and it is a serious one. Children expect adults to know what is going on and to be able to answer perfectly valid and straightforward questions about the world and everything in it. This includes Santa Claus. Unfortunately, when an adult is left stammering by a question about Santa Claus, it can leave doubts in the mind of the child… and if that happens often enough it could even lead to a child's disbelief altogether. If left unchecked, the child may eventually come to doubt many other well-known and widely accepted facts, such as the existence of the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, or in the honesty and integrity of lawyers and congressmen. To diminish the potential for societal breakdown and anarchy, I humbly offer a simple FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) that adults can use to educate themselves on the facts about Santa Claus.
Who is Santa Claus?
Unfortunately, this is the one aspect of Santa Claus that I cannot intelligently answer. In fact, nobody can. The pure and simple fact is that nobody knows for sure where Santa came from, and since he has declined all invitations to do an interview, the mystery lives on.
However, that has not stopped people from speculating as to his origins. There are a number of different theories, and though some seem to have some validity, none of them truly stand out as the most likely answer. For example, there are those who believes that Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas. Despite some similarities between the two, there are far more differences. Saint Nicholas was a fourth century Turkish bishop of the Christian church. He did give out gifts to children. However, he did not wear a red and white fur-trimmed suit. He did not live anywhere near reindeer, much less own a stable of flying reindeer. He would have probably frowned upon fraternization with elves (or other pagans) and he probably did not have the first clue about the manufacture of fine toys.
The bottom line is that there is just not enough information to go on, and after many years of many brilliant people spending a lot of time working to research the topic, the truth is that we are no closer to an answer than we were in the beginning. So the best course of action at this point is to just accept the fact that he has been here for almost two hundred years and is apparently still going strong.
Who are the Elves?
Once upon a time, this question was a lot easier to answer. Unfortunately, the issue has been clouded in recent years, especially with the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and the eventual success of his books and the movies that were inspired by them. To set the record straight, elves are not beautiful and tall people wielding bows and swords. Those are the Sidhe, and you can look them up on Wikipedia. Elves are generally small and sometimes get mistaken for children (which is why many of them prefer to grow beards). The are particularly skilled at crafts and they are generally very good, generous and cheerful people. They originally lived in the mountains and forests of northern Europe, but were eventually squeezed out of those lands as people's beliefs changed and the tolerance of their neighbors to the old "pagan" ways were subsequently reduced. In those days, anything that was different or not clearly understood was considered "pagan", and therefore was deemed bad (or worse).
There were never many elves in the first place, and their numbers declined as they were pushed northward. By the time Santa Claus found them, there were only a few hundred living on the fringes of the Arctic Circle. Santa offered them room and board for helping him craft the vast number of toys he needed each year, and as the elf economy was particularly bad (predominantly limited to the manufacture of high-end cuckoo clocks and similar items), the elves readily agreed and the two parties formed a very strong bond (and a legally binding one) that has lasted ever since.
Does Santa live at the North Pole?
The answer is no… though at one time, the answer was yes… or at least "kinda". Santa and the elves originally settled in the very far north, above the Arctic Circle. It was not technically the north pole (which is really just a big patch of ice floating at the top of the world), but for all intensive purposes it was very isolated and very far north, so it was the same as the north pole for most folks. This worked out well for many years, but as the population of the planet continued to rise, Santa and his crew found that they were becoming increasingly less isolated. The easier access to Santa led to new problems including constant harassment by journalists, salesmen and an occasional lawyer or two. By the time that television was becoming more widespread, Santa and his crew had decided that they could not tolerate all the attention any longer and they moved.
However, nobody seems to know where they moved to. Some speculate that they moved to the South Pole (or somewhere near there), while others believe that he has moved his operations to the vast and unpopulated boreal forests of northern Russia. A few conspiracy theorists insist that his operations have moved into some seemingly abandoned industrial property in a city like Detroit or Newark. Generally, I am not one to agree with conspiracy theorists, but in my mind this is probably the best answer in light of recent changes to Santa's global operations (see below).
I do think there is some kind of governmental involvement with the relocation, because even though Santa no longer lives at or near the North Pole, mail addressed to him at the North Pole still seems to make its way to him over time. This is a bit frustrating to me personally as mail addressed to me at my present address sometimes never makes it way to me, no matter how long I wait.
Does Santa deliver all the toys by himself?
This is another case where the answer is no, but at one time it was yes. At one time, Santa did do all the deliveries by himself. Even though there were far fewer people (and therefore far fewer deliveries), it was always a tough job for a single individual. Unfortunately for Santa, the population of the world only increased and it was soon obvious that he could not continue to make all the deliveries on schedule and by himself. The original solution was to spread the deliveries out to different days of the holiday season, and to this day the gift giving associated with the holidays occurs on different days of the calendar depending on where in the world one lives. For example, Santa makes his deliveries in some countries on December 6th or the 17th, or even on January 6th or 7th (see "Why are there so many Santas?" below).
This solved the problem for many more decades, but eventually the continued population growth outgrew this solution as well. The only real alternative was to increase his delivery capacity. While it would be relatively easy to build more sleighs and to train others to do the work, Santa was constrained by the number of flying reindeer he had on hand. Obviously, flying reindeer are extremely rare and it seems that he already had all the flying reindeer to be found. The traditional solution just did not scale well to reflect the changing needs of the world. For the first time, Santa was forced to turn to look for a solution outside of his own organization.
Luckily for us, there are many distribution and delivery companies who were happy to help out. The downside is that reliance on outside contractors has brought the overall customer experience down. To ensure delivery by Christmas, gifts are sent out early and can often arrive even a full week (or two) before Christmas. In some cases the actual preparation of the gifts (wrapping and putting under the tree) must be accomplished by adults. In fact, many of you may have been contact by Santa (or somebody within his organization) to help out in exactly this way. Santa still makes many personal deliveries, but the simple law of numbers means that for most people, Santa's magic comes via the post office, UPS or Fed Ex. The alternative would be that most of us would miss out entirely.
As noted above (under the answer for "Does Santa live at the North Pole?"), I think there is validity to the idea that Santa is hiding out in some urban industrial area. Working from such a location would give ample access to these commercial distribution systems including access to road, rail, air and shipping facilities. That would better facilitate the massive distribution tasks needed each year.
Does Santa have flying reindeer and a sleigh?
Yes. However, a better question is whether he uses them every year to make deliveries. The answer to that is generally, no. Once again, it all boils down to how the growth of the project has made the traditional methods obsolete. Once upon a time, Santa could do the work all by himself using his sleigh and flying reindeer. However, there was always the problem that that a sleigh can only hold so much stuff at one time. Of course, Santa experimented with various sleigh designs and even tried prepositioning filled sleighs so that he could just fly in and swap out an empty sleigh for a full one. Unfortunately, all of these solutions only provided limited increases to capacity.
As technology become more sophisticated and widely available, Santa had new options with which he began to experiment, and that helped substantially. Eventually, the reindeer and even the sleigh itself were replaced by technical innovations. As a result, the sleigh and the reindeer are semi-retired and are only used for ceremonial functions and special occasions (mostly parades). Frankly, the reindeer are pretty pleased with the arrangement.
Does Santa come down the chimney?
The current answer is no. Did Santa come down the chimney in the old days? Sometimes. However, even in the old days this was a rare occurrence. Once upon a time, almost nobody locked their doors or windows at night. In most cases, Santa would come through the door like a "normal" person. Sometimes he was forced to use a window and in very rare cases, he would try coming down the chimney. This was a tricky problem because in those same times, the fireplace was often the main (or only) source of heat in people's homes. Still, it was easier than today because chimneys were bigger and Santa was smaller.
Unfortunately, there came a time when people began locking their doors and windows. Fortunately for Santa, this roughly coincided with the time when he started to use external distribution methods and this allowed many parents to participate on his behalf while still keeping their doors and windows locked.
However, as noted previously, Santa is still on the job and still continues to deliver many gifts personally. The difference is that he now has access to cutting edge technology including matter teleportation devices (similar to the transporter used in the Star Trek movies and television shows). In most cases he will "beam" in the gifts under the tree as he passes by a house. In very rare circumstances (where the gift recipients have been particularly good and deserving), Santa will beam himself into the house as well, and he will personally arrange the gifts under the tree. However, such personal service is very rare and reserved only for the most outstanding boys and girls.
Is Santa Claus called Saint Nicholas?
Yes…. But to be more specific, some people call him "Saint Nicholas", but that is not his name (and as noted above, it is highly unlikely that Santa is Saint Nicholas). So the truth is that some do indeed call him Saint Nicholas, but technically they are incorrect and you can feel free to correct them.
Why are there so many Santas?
This is really two questions; Why does it seem like there is a Santa in every store, mall and street corner? And...why are there different "versions" of Santa Claus outside of the United States? Let's address these one at a time.
A recurring theme in the previous answers is that the scope of Santa's operation has grown well beyond anything that he personally could handle completely by himself. What's more, the demands on his time are ridiculously tight and he rarely has time to make public appearances or directly interact with the public at large because he has so much work to do (and orchestrate) before Christmas Eve. However, the need to communicate through Santa is still very real. After all, he needs to know what to bring and to sync up with kids about how they perceive their behavior over the past year (and reconcile that with his own data). The only answer is to hire proxies to stand in for Santa.
Unfortunately, some of these supposed "Santas" are pretty poor replacements for the real thing (just one of many problems that came from relying on external contractors). However, some are really really good substitutes and may easily be mistaken for the real deal. The situation is muddled even more by Santa himself as he occasionally makes appearances incognito to get a firsthand impression of what is going on.
There is no hard and fast rules about whether any given Santa is the genuine article. However, if Santa appears to be suspicious in any way, you are probably dealing with one of the proxies. Likewise, if everything seems to check out… you just might be dealing with the man himself. Therefore, always be on your best behavior.
As for the various Santa-like figures in various cultures… yes they are all Santa. As noted previously, Santa has been at this for a very long time. In the early days, the cultures and traditions of various countries were even more varied and separate than they are today, and Santa adapted to fit within the traditions and expectations of each individual culture. As a result, he may wear different clothes, have a different name and even do completely different things than he would in the United States. However, it is the same beloved figure working to make children and families happy around the globe.
Do the Elves make all the toys?
At one time, the answer was yes. However, I have noted in several previous answers that the scale of the work is just too big for the traditional methods. Therefore, much of the work has been outsourced to keep up with demand. There is also the additional problem of patent infringement, international copyrights and licensing agreements. Since so many of the items desired by kids are internationally protected and licensed products, the only legal way to handle the situation was to work out an external arrangement with the manufacturers of those products. While this has degraded the overall experience by a small amount, it has allowed Santa to spread the experience to so many more children and thus, it is an overall improvement.
However, the elves are still busy and they continue to do what they do best. Therefore, if you receive a particularly well made "old fashioned" toy or game, chances are very good that it was constructed by the Elves within Santa's "workshop" (or more likely, his hidden industrial campus).
How does Santa know if you have been bad or good?
Depending on which version of the Santa story you hear, Santa is supposed to have some kind of crystal ball or magical powers that lets him know who is good and who is bad. The answer is much more mundane than that and you probably already know the answer to this as you are already in the vast intelligence network that serves as Santa's "eyes and ears". What you may not know is that parents are not the only ones to keep track of what their kids are doing. Most teachers are also tapped into the network as well as some adults in special positions (firemen, policemen, doctors, clergy, etc.).
Santa is able to see far and wide, even if you can't keep a direct eye on your children. He may have a better lock on how your kids are behaving than you do. Unfortunately it is very hard for adults to tap into the information flow (it generally flows only to Santa and not the other way around).
If parents keep interacting with Santa so much, how come they don't know more about him?
If you have ever tried to get some face time with the real Santa, you already know the answer to this one. The problem is that Santa is just so incredibly busy that he almost never has time to stop and really talk to anybody. In those few cases where he does have times to chat, it is usually directly related to the distribution of gifts or how deserving a specific child is (or is not). Santa rarely has time to do much discussion of a personal nature. So if you are frustrated with getting ahold of him, be assured that you are not alone and thus, the reason I created this FAQ.
Where does Santa Claus get his resources and funding?
In the early years, there was no need for funding, and resources were usually abundant and readily available locally (wood and paint for the most part). However, as the operation has grown and become more sophisticated, the need for cold hard cash has increased, particularly when Santa began to enter into licensing arrangements and other contractual obligations with manufacturers. The solution was simply a case of "if you can't beat them, join them".
Santa had seen his persona used in a number of advertising campaigns, books, movies and just about every other medium available. For a long time, this had occurred without Santa's direct approval and completely free of cost. As the need for capital increased, Santa finally began licensing his image and endorsements in exchange for a piece of the profit (after all, they had been profiting at his expense for years already). Today, almost any object or depiction of Santa generates a tiny revenue stream for Santa's organization and when those revenues are collectively considered, the resulting sum is very substantial and sufficient to fund the organization's efforts throughout the year.