What language does Santa Claus speak?

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As Santa delivers gifts across the world, what is his native tongue and what languages does he speak? Iglu Ski explores the theories of Santa as a multilingual man.

Santa Claus is loosely based on the historical figure and bishop St Nicholas of Myra, born in Lycia which is now part of Turkey. Lycia was Greek speaking at the time which leads us to conclude that Santa must speak Greek.

Lapland, encompassing Finland, Sweden, Norway and northern Russia is home to the Sami people as well as Santa in Finnish Lapland. So Santa must be able to not only speak Finnish but possibly Norwegian, Swedish and Russian.

Santa is also linked to the Norse god Odin. Santa and Odin have a similar appearance with their white long beard but Odin is associated with pre-Christian Yuletide celebrations in which he sometimes enters home by going down their chimneys and leaving presents behind. Odin’s horse Sleipnir also has 8 legs, whilst Santa has 8 reindeer (before Rudolph joined the herd). Does this mean he speaks Old Norse as well as Norweigen? Old Norse is also the basis for Scandinavian languages so it can be claimed that Santa knows many languages from his ancient versions. Also as he resides in Lapland, surely he speaks to the Sami people therefore maybe he even dabbles in Northern Sami.

Not to mention, Santa receives over half a million letters each year from children across the world, so surely he must know at least the basics of languages over the world in order for him to read and reply to them.