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IT'S been a mystery for children and parents alike for millennia; but leaked footage of a conversation between the Science and Technology Secretary and the Government Chief Scientific Adviser has revealed how Father Christmas manages to deliver billions of presents across the world in just 1 night.

Posting on its social media channels, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said it was:- "disappointed that footage of a private conversation… had been made public" - adding that they believed elves were responsible.

DSIT said that it had taken the decision to post the footage in question for the benefit of any non-believers.

Many sceptics claim that Saint Nick seems to defy the laws of physics, but unaware she was being filmed in conversation with the Science and Tech Secretary Michelle Donelan, Dame Angela McLean; the Government Chief Scientific Adviser; is seen explaining the answer; Santa has a quantum trick up his sleeve!

Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level, describing the basic building blocks of the world around us. It explains almost everything we understand about the world, from how the sun shines to why wood looks and feels different to brick.

Quantum physics looks at how the very smallest of these building blocks behave. At the smallest level, particles behave in unexpected ways that bigger particles do not. In some cases, objects can be:- "entangled" at the quantum level; meaning they exist in a special connected state no matter how far apart they are, across the whole world!

In short, Dame Angela says, quantum physics allows Santa’s delivery of presents to happen automatically as soon as the first child receives a gift. That means Father Christmas can guarantee the delivery of thousands, millions, even billions of presents in the space of a single night.

Kris Kringle has some very, very advanced technology to maintain this "entanglement," far beyond the capabilities of humankind for the moment.

But "entanglement" is fragile, Dame Angela warns in the footage. If Father Christmas is disturbed it will break the entangled state and the special link guaranteeing present delivery will be lost.

So, while children may be tempted to stay up for a glance at Father Christmas, they could end up disrupting his high tech delivery system and risk ruining Santa’s Christmas plans.

To prevent this, Tech Secretary Michelle Donelan is recorded advising all children to listen to their parents and head off to sleep early, to make sure Saint Nick can make his merry delivery!

Santa Claus’ use of quantum technology hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Government is trying to harness the power of quantum too by investing £2.5bn in the technology over the next 10 years and making it one of their five critical technologies that are fundamental to creating jobs, growing the economy, and supporting the UK’s security in the future.

While we might be some way from entangling gifts across the whole world, like Father Christmas, the hope is that the UK could use quantum technology to improve internet security, build much more efficient computers, diagnose diseases more quickly, and build improved modeling programs that could generate billions for the UK economy.

Interestingly according to new national research, just 17% of UK households will put a mince pie out for Santa this year! The study, by the Chef & Brewer Collection of country pubs, has also revealed that a number of age old Christmas traditions, including:- hanging stockings and singing carols are in sharp decline.