The end of the year is an exciting and exhausting time for everyone (especially Santa Clause who apparently has 2.1 billion children to visit on Christmas Eve… as you’ll learn below). And this year, being more stressful than most, I’m sure everyone needs the extra time for self-love and rejuvenation. With a reduction of Christmas parties, and social activities and outings, we can really use this time to turn inwards and renew our energies (both physical and mental) by spending quality time with close family and relaxing with good books!

As we look ahead to 2021, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you for being a part of Hamilton House this year! It’s been challenging for everyone, and in the spirit of the season, we thought we’d share some science behind Santa with you.

Number of Stops?

If Santa needs to visit every child, have you ever wondered how many stops that means he has to make on Christmas Eve? Well, assuming they’ve all been good, that’s 2.1 billion children, and, estimating 2.5 children per household, that works out to 842 million different households. And you thought you had a busy day?

How Fast Does He Travel?

Let’s say that there’s an average distance of 400m between each house. And we already know he needs to travel over 350 million kilometers. He’s allowed one thousandth of a second to zoot down the chimney, dish out gifts, eat cookies and get back “on the road”. To get all this done, in his allocated time, he’ll need to travel 2060km per second!

How much time per household? 

He can maximise his time by traveling East to West so that he has 31 hours to get around to visiting every child’s house. “Einstein’s theory of relativity dictates the faster an object travels, the slower times appears to pass.” So, it still amounts to just one millisecond per house.

How many reindeer would he realistically need to get this done?

Taking into account the amount of children, his sleigh would need to be able to carry 363 Million kilograms! The standard reindeer can only carry 150kg, meaning Father Christmas needs 360,000 of them to make this happen!

Which makes the total weight of Santa, plus sleigh & reindeer…

453.5 million kilograms. Now, weighing that, if they went at the speed required to visit every child in the world, it would cause each reindeer to vaporise in a sonic boom, which would flatten every tree and building within a 50km radius.

Big Santa would weigh…

A whopping 2 million kilograms! Which would cause Santa to combust when his reindeer suddenly pulled to a stop at a house. Nobody wants to see that.

So, now that you know the scientific facts about Santa, how do you think he does it? A little imagination can go a long way.

Our best wishes to you for the festive season. Stay safe, stay healthy, be kind and we’ll see you in 2021 for a fresh, and hopefully favourable new year! 

(Facts obtained from The science behind being Santa that proves he MUST be magical)