Questions to Ask Santa
Questions a child can ask Santa during a short visit, starting with easy ones about the reindeer and ending with the wish they most want to say out loud. Includes notes for the adult standing behind them.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How are the reindeer doing this year?
Why ask it
An easy opener a child can manage while still nervous, and one any Santa can answer warmly. It also buys a shy child a few seconds to settle before the big request.
What's your favourite cookie, and has anyone ever left you something better?
Why ask it
Cookies are the one subject where the child is the expert, so the exchange becomes a trade rather than an interview. Expect to leave with instructions about Christmas Eve.
Do you have a favourite reindeer, or is that a secret?
Why ask it
Naming favourites is a small test of tact, and most Santas decline gracefully. Watching an adult refuse to pick is a quietly useful thing for a child to see.
How do the elves decide who makes which toy?
Why ask it
It moves the story off Santa and into the workshop, where there is much more room to invent. Children who like systems usually ask three more questions after this one.
What's the North Pole like in the summer?
Why ask it
Off-season questions are the most fun for the person in the suit because nobody prepares them. Answers tend to involve fishing, repairs and a great deal of sleeping.
How do you get into houses that don't have a chimney?
Why ask it
The chimney gap is the first thing that logically bothers a child who is starting to reason it through. A confident answer usually settles the worry rather than deepening it.
How do you fit all the presents in one sleigh?
Why ask it
Sleigh capacity is an engineering problem, which suits children who would much rather solve something than talk about themselves.
What time do you think you'll get to my house?
Why ask it
You get a plausible time and, almost always, advice about being asleep. It is a gentler way for a parent to establish Christmas Eve bedtime than saying it themselves.
How do you stay awake all night?
Why ask it
Staying up all night is genuinely impressive at six years old, and the answer is usually the funniest moment of the visit: snacks, short naps and a great deal of coffee.
Does Mrs Claus come with you on Christmas Eve?
Why ask it
It brings in a character often left out of the story, and gives a child who is interested in the home side of the operation somewhere to go with it.
What's the strangest thing anyone has ever asked you for?
Why ask it
Asking about other children's odd requests takes all the pressure off their own list, and the answer is frequently the part they repeat for weeks.
Do grown-ups still get presents?
Why ask it
Children genuinely wonder about this, and it is a kind question for the adults standing a metre behind them to hear asked.
What do you do the day after Christmas?
Why ask it
The day after is when the story relaxes. Answers about sleeping late and eating leftovers make Santa feel like a person rather than an operation.
Who taught you to fly the sleigh?
Why ask it
It invites a story with a beginning, which is far easier for a nervous child to listen to than to answer. Expect a father, or a very old elf.
What happens if a child moves house before Christmas?
Why ask it
A practical worry that matters enormously to a child who has moved this year. Ask it early if that applies, because the reassurance is the whole point of the visit.
How do you know what I want if I change my mind?
Why ask it
Children who have changed their minds since writing a letter often carry real anxiety about it. This gives them permission to update the list out loud, with a witness.
What's the best present you were ever given?
Why ask it
Turning the question around teaches something about asking rather than only receiving, and most Santas have an answer ready for it.
What would you like for Christmas?
Why ask it
Almost no child thinks to ask this, and the adults nearby will remember that they did. It also gives a shy child something to say that requires nothing personal.
Is there something I could do this year that would help you?
Why ask it
It turns the visit from a request into an offer, and Santas tend to answer with something a child can genuinely do: be kind to a sibling, help at home, go to sleep on time.
Can I tell you the one thing I want most?
Why ask it
Save this for last. Naming the thing that matters most out loud, to somebody who is listening carefully, is what the child came for.
Making a short Santa visit go well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you reach the front of the line
- Most visits last a minute or two, so agree on two questions and the one request. Any more and the child will forget all of them.
- Bring the letter if there is one. Handing something over gives a nervous child a job to do.
- Warn them about the queue, the photo and whether sitting on a lap is expected, so nothing is a surprise at the front.
- Decide in advance whether you are asking for a specific present, and whether you can deliver it, because children remember exact wording.
- Eat first. Almost every difficult Santa visit involves a hungry child.
If your child is shy
Ask the first question yourself and let them listen. The questions about reindeer, cookies and the North Pole need nothing personal in return, so they work when a child cannot yet speak. Standing beside Santa rather than sitting on a lap is fine and most venues expect it. Thirty seconds and a wave is a successful visit, and pushing for more usually turns it into a memory nobody wanted.
If they ask whether he is real
Experienced Santas have their own answer and will handle it, usually by turning it back gently. Decide beforehand what you want to say if the question comes to you instead, and follow the child's lead: many are testing rather than asking, and are happy to keep playing. A queue with other families in it is not the place to settle it either way.
Older children who have worked it out
- Many keep going for a younger sibling. Give them a role: holding the letter, taking the photo, asking the workshop questions. They usually enjoy the visit more than the little one does.
- The logistics questions are perfect for this age, because they can appreciate the invention: sleigh capacity, chimneys, time zones.
- Do not ask them to pretend in front of you. Let them decide how much to play along.
Afterwards
- Write down anything Santa promised or suggested, in the words he used.
- Note which question got the best answer, since it is usually the one they will want to ask again next year.
- If a specific present was named that will not be arriving, say something before Christmas Eve rather than after.