Common Questions About Santa Seen in Fiction
- How can he fit all of the toys on his sleigh/in his sack?: A common question, and the one in the trope title. Sometimes lampshaded by having Santa and/or the reindeer complain about how heavy the sack is (or for the reindeer to complain about how heavy Santa is) or having a kid ask for something huge and crazy for Christmas and be told Santa can't fit it on his sleigh. Common answers for this question are that Santa and his reindeer have Super-Strength, the sleigh has magical durability, and the sack has magical powers that can allow it to fit more than its size would normally allow (see Bag of Holding and Bigger on the Inside).
- How does he do it all in one night?: One of the, if not the, most common questions. Some characters try to use it to debunk Santa, while others try to use it to prove Santa exists (by saying their parents couldn't stay up/wake themselves up at night.) Answers could involve exploiting time-zones, wormholes, teleportation, or the use of magic to slow down/stop time.
- How does he fit down the chimney?: Especially common now that chimneys are narrower than they were in the past, and also because Santa is supposed to be fat. Comedic works might have Santa struggle down the chimney or get stuck.
- Why has no one ever seen him?: The stock answer for why nobody has seen Santa is because he comes when everybody is in bed, but as kids get older, they realise that some people go out at night to have parties, or work at night, and then there's kids that wake up and go get some water or whatever. Children are often told that Santa knows when people are awake or asleep and only comes if everyone's asleep. Another explanation is that Santa can turn invisible or is invisible to people who don't believe in him.
- How does he know who's been good and bad?: Usually Santa is depicted as being all-knowing, in a similar way to God (which has rubbed the odd Christian up the wrong way since the Bible states that only God is all-knowing). However, other works have him use elves as scouts to determine who has been naughty or nice (hence the "Elf on the Shelf" dolls) and modern works may have him use surveillance cameras.
- What makes the reindeer fly?: Sometimes the reindeer are portrayed as being just for show while the sleigh has jet engines, but usually it's magic that makes the reindeer fly. The exact specifics of the magic varies depending on the story. Sometimes, the reindeer are enchanted, and sometimes it's an inborn magical power that could run in families. The reindeer may also need enough people to be happy or enough people to believe in Santa or some other necessary condition to fly, which is a good way to initiate a Saving Christmas plot.
- What does he do with houses that have no chimneys?: Initially, this question wasn't a thing since all houses had chimneys, but now that a great many don't, kids with chimney-less houses, apartments, etc may be wondering this. This is a hard one to answer, and even works which tend to answer questions about Santa may end up saying something like "It's a secret" or "It doesn't matter". If they do attempt to answer this, it'll usually involve skeleton keys and/or magic.
- How does he eat all the food/drink all the drink?: Some people assert the food as why he's fat; he gained the weight from eating a lot. As for how, it's usually said to be either just magic, or his work works up an appetite.
- What would happen if the chimney had a fire at the end?: While the odd work has had Santa get burned from a fireplace, most works have him put out the fires with magic, or make him immune to fire.
- How has he lived for so long?: Lighter works tend to say he's immortal, while darker works claim he lives a regular lifespan, and when one Santa dies, another guy takes his place.
