I’m sure I’m not the only one to ponder this question, and I’m certain other blog posts have been written on the subject. To be fair, I haven’t seen any of them. I wanted to flesh this idea out on my own.
I saw a meme the other day. Something about Santa using Floo Powder as an explanation on how he goes down the chimney. That started me on a line of thinking about Santa being a wizard from the wizarding world of the Harry Potter universe. So now I present my evidence.
The North Pole
Santa resides at the North Pole. His workshop is there, where he and his elves create toys for all the good boys and girls of the world. Yet, no such structure has ever been discovered. Why? Anti-Muggle charms. It’s well documented that places in the magical community are charmed against muggles discovering them. Hogwarts has such charms. The Quidditch World cup as well. Hermione clearly used similar charms to protect her, Ron, and Harry from discovery while they were in hiding. Santa obviously does the same.
Elves
House elves. Obviously.
Santa’s Toy Sack
Hermione had a bag with which she placed an undetectable extension charm. Inside, she could place an enormous amount of items. (Bigger on the inside, anyone?) Also, Mr. Weasly placed similar charms on their Ford Anglia so that it could fit eight people and six trunks comfortably.
Flying Reindeer and Sleigh
The wizarding world has an affinity for using old-world items as flying transportation devices. Brooms are the most prevalent. Also, there are several flying creatures in the wizarding world. The students from Beauxbatons arrived in a carriage pulled by a dozen winged horses. There are also thestrals and hippogriffs. My best guess? Santa’s sleigh is pulled by thestrals, which is why they can’t be seen. Or maybe flying reindeer actually exist in the wizarding world and it hasn’t been revealed to us yet.
Chimneys and Fireplaces
The original meme I came across suggested Santa uses floo powder. There is a small problem with this theory in that most muggle fireplaces are not large enough to travel by floo powder and are not connected to the floo network. Disapparation could be an alternate solution, but as my wife pointed out, disapparation creates a popping sound sure to wake people up.
I would like to suggest that Santa uses a modified version of floo powder, in which he temporarily creates a magical channel through the length of the chimney to the front of the fireplace. What he does uses the same principle as the floo network, but is self contained. Perhaps he has a device he places at the top of the chimney that creates this temporary connection. He then activates it while on the roof and transports via the chimney to stand in front of the fireplace.
Naughty or Nice?
Santa has a version of a Foe Glass, like the one owned by Mad-Eye Moody. When Santa arrives at a house, he simply checks his Foe Glass and can clearly see if the children inside are good or bad.
Traveling the World
Being a wizard, Santa could easily travel the world and deliver toys in a single night by using a Time Turner. He can visit one house, deliver toys, and travel to the next house. Before entering, he simply turns the time turner back half an hour and repeats for each house. By the time he’s done for the night, only half an hour has passed.
Long Life
Santa has been around for a long time. As a wizard, there are multiple ways to get at this. Perhaps he’s friends with Nicolas Flamel and has been given some of the Elixir of Life. Or maybe the work of Santa has been done by a succession of people. They could use simple charms to change their appearance to look like a traditional Santa. Or maybe they’ve managed to maintain the same recipe of polyjuice potion all these years.
So what do you think? Is Santa a wizard? Is there a detail I haven’t accounted for? Leave a comment and let me know!
-odk