Are you fielding some tricky Santa questions? It’s that time of the year when they come in at a fast and furious pace.

If you’re wondering how to answer one of the top questions, “How does Santa make it around the world in one night,” you have help this year from a local professor of engineering who just completed a six-month visiting-scholar program at Santa’s Workshop-North Pole Labs (SW-NPL).

“Santa is using technologies that we are not yet able to recreate in our own labs,” says North Carolina State University’s Dr. Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. “As the first scholar to participate in the SW-NPL program, I learned that we have a long way to go to catch up with Santa in fields ranging from aerodynamics and thermodynamics to materials science.”

Silverberg says that Santa’s sleigh is far more advanced than any modern form of air transportation. “The truss of the sleigh, including the runners, are made of a honeycombed titanium alloy that is very lightweight and 10 to 20 times stronger than anything we can make today,” he says. The truss can also morph, Silverberg adds, altering its shape slightly to improve its aerodynamics and “allowing it to cut through the air more efficiently. The runners on the sleigh, for example, have some flexure, allowing them to tuck in to be more aerodynamic during flight, and then spread out to provide stability for landing on steeply pitched roofs.

You’ll find more news of Santa’s state-of-the-art sleigh on CarolinaParent.com’s Triangle Holiday Guide. But if you’re facing a lot of skepticism regarding the jolly old elf himself, see what the experts at the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood Development say about age-appropriate responses to questions of Santa and magic. These mental health experts look at when’s a good time to break the news and whether children resent deception in our Triangle Holiday Guide.

Speaking of the truth, I’ve had some experience with breaking the news this year. For about a year or so, I’ve been hammered with hard questions about Santa. The facts just didn’t add up for my son, and as he posed logical arguments one after another, I understood that the time had arrived. I made it into a game for a while, reluctant to let go.

“What do you think,” I’d ask.

“I want to know what you think,” he’d reply.

One afternoon this year as we were driving home from school, I finally blurted out: “Do you think that a person can fly around the world in a night?”

“No,” he replied.

“There you have it,” I said.

I waited for disappointment and accusations to follow. But all I heard was a giggle. Then, silence.

Five minutes later, another question arrived: “What about the Easter Bunny?”

“Do you think a bunny hops around the neighborhood, delivering presents?” I said, feeling worse and worse by the minute.

“No,” he replied.

Another giggle.

The Tooth Fairy succumbed five minutes later to a similar intellectual attack. Then for the rest of the ride, there was laughter from the back seat.

“Do you mean all these grown-ups have been playing along all this time?” he asked, smiling.

Then came a barrage of questions: “Who’s been eating the cookies and milk we left out on Christmas Eve?" "Who writes the notes?"

To my amazement, he was thrilled! Instead of feeling terrible, I was reaffirmed. All the time and effort that my husband and I had invested in making Christmas magical was recognized. It was a magical moment.

P.S. Santa is still coming to our house.

— Written by Odile Fredericks, Carolina Parent Web Editor