The questions kids ask about Santa, and how to answer them

Sooner or later the questions come, on Santa’s knee, in a letter or at bedtime, and it’s often a parent or grandparent who has to answer for him. Here are the ones that come up again and again, what a professional Santa says to them, and the real science behind the reindeer questions.

Sources are linked in the text. Last checked November 2026.

Several of the answers below come from Jim Manning, who had played Santa in Boston for 14 years when Business Insider interviewed him in 2017. The rest are our own suggestions, and we say so where they are.

“Will you bring me that toy?”

Manning never promises a particular present, even when a parent whispers that it’s already bought. Toys sell out and parcels go astray. His answer is a warm version of “We’ll see what we can do.” That’s a good line for home too. A promise from Santa is very hard to take back on Christmas morning.

“Can I have a puppy?”

Manning hears this one a lot. He explains that it gets too cold on the sleigh to bring animals, and that a pet is a decision for the child and their parents together. If you’re answering for Santa at home, that keeps the decision where it belongs, with you.

“You don’t look like the other Santa I saw.”

Manning tells children that the other one was one of his helpers, and he encourages other Santas to say the same. It works just as well when a grandparent is asked why the Santa at the mall looked different from the one at church.

“We don’t celebrate Christmas. Do you still come?”

Manning meets Jewish children every year who tell him so. He tells them he’s Santa for everybody, and that nobody has to believe in him. Whatever your family does, there’s no need to make a child feel left out of the fun.

“How do the reindeer fly?”

Real reindeer can’t fly, so how Santa’s do is up to your family’s own story. You could ask your child for their theory first. What real reindeer can do is impressive enough. Arctic reindeer have a second layer of fur, and wide, crescent-shaped hooves that keep them steady on snow and let them dig for food, in winters that can reach −50°C (UCL).

“How do the reindeer see in the dark?”

This is the one with a true answer, and it’s a good one. Arctic reindeer have a mirror-like layer at the back of the eye, the tapetum lucidum, that bounces light back through the retina so they can see better in dim light. Researchers at University College London found that it changes with the seasons: gold and turquoise in summer, deep blue in winter, when the Arctic is dark or in twilight all day.

According to National Geographic, reindeer can also see into the ultraviolet, light our eyes can’t see. Lichen, their winter food, and wolf fur both absorb ultraviolet light, so against bright snow they stand out dark. In other words, reindeer are very good at finding their dinner and spotting danger in the long winter dusk.

“What do the reindeer eat?”

In winter, mostly lichen, which they uncover by brushing away the snow with their hooves, antlers and muzzles (UCL). Leaving out a carrot is a fine tradition anyway.

“How do you get to every house in one night?”

Nobody has a scientific answer to this one, and that’s part of the fun. Our suggestion: on Christmas Eve, follow along on the official NORAD Tracks Santa site together, and let your child come up with their own theory.

“Can you bring back Grandpa?” or “Can you make Mom better?”

Manning calls these the hardest moments of the season. He gently explains that there are limits to what even Santa can do, and reminds the child that the people around them are there for them. At home, our suggestion is the same: don’t promise what can’t happen, and stay close while they’re sad.

“Are you real?”

We don’t think there’s one right answer, and we won’t pretend to have one. Families handle it in very different ways. One gentle place to start is to ask what they think, and why. Then you can follow their lead.

When you don’t know the answer

Plenty of Santa questions are really science questions in a red hat: how snowflakes form, why the North Pole is cold, how far away it is. When you don’t know, say so, write the question down and look it up together.

More guides: how to answer a child’s letter to Santa, the Christmas Eve book tradition and Christmas gifts for grandchildren far away.