He gets 500,000 letters sent to him every year in New York City alone, a Google search of his name yields more than 19 million hits, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks his path online as he — allegedly — delivers presents. Ahh, Santa Claus. He’s what dreams are made of. But is he real? Life & Style set off to investigate this pressing question, encountering physicists, reindeer experts, and a real live (fake) Santa along the way.

The Cookie Factor

According to the latest census, there are 111,162,259 households in the United States, of which 78.5% are Christian. This means there are at least 87,262,373 families out there celebrating Christmas, and that’s without the many people who celebrate it as a secular holiday. If Santa were to eat two cookies at each of these houses, he would be eating 174,524,746 cookies in one night. Nutrition expert Dr. Linda Van Horn, however, contends that this would not pose a health problem for Santa. Dr. Van Horn calculates: “Caloric intake per house…..at 200 multiplied by a gazillion houses equals 200 gazillion calories. Caloric expenditure per house, e.g., down the chimney, heavy bag, organizing gifts, up chimney, caring for reindeers, replacing toys and gifts (in an overweight body) would be about 200 calories per house. Net impact on Santa’s energy balance is zero.” So never fear, Santa fans, St. Nick’s breaking even.
Plausible? Yes. — Katie Mullen

The Traveling Component

Santa’s reindeer need more than Red Bull’s promised wings to fly to every house this Christmas. To go coast-to-coast delivering presents, Santa needs something faster than a rocket and able to stop on a dime. If he visits all 87,262,373 families out there celebrating Christmas, assuming there is an average of 200 feet between each house’s chimney, Santa’s reindeer will fly 3,305,392 miles in a single night.

If Santa starts at 9 p.m. on the East Coast and ends at 5 a.m. on the West Coast, he’ll have 11 hours to travel. But Santa needs to stop and deliver the gifts. Stopping for only one millisecond (1/360000 hour) at each house, he still loses 2.5 hours of travel. This means Santa needs to travel at 388,870 mph, or 108 miles per second, to make it everywhere. Such a speed would create so much air resistance that jolly ol’ St. Nick might burn to embers. Rudolph’s nose won’t be the only thing red this Christmas.

Physics professor Andrew Morrison believes the air resistance won’t necessarily vaporize Santa if he has the right technology, but there’s another force that will. “The better question is how does he survive the enormous accelerations and decelerations associated with dropping off each present?” Morrison said. “Certainly the g-forces he would experience would crush the organs of most mortals. Perhaps the padding he builds up by eating milk and cookies protects him, but I do not know for sure.”
Plausible: Probably not. — Alex Freeman

Present Paradox

If Santa drops off an average of 10 toys at each of the houses he visits, that’s a whopping 872,623,730 presents he needs to make in the course of a year! In the holiday movie Elf, Buddy the elf is expected to make 1,000 Etch A Sketch toys in one day. Taking this as the average output of an elf, a single elf could produce 365,000 Etch A Sketches in a year. To provide for the almost 2 billion children waiting expectantly on Christmas Eve, 2,390 elves would have to work all year to make enough presents.

The U.S. Census annual survey of manufacturers reported that doll, toy and game manufacturers spent $2,565 on energy and $147,342 on materials per employee. To provide for more than 2,000 elves, Santa would have to spend $6,130,350 on materials and $352,147,380 on fuels and electricity. That’s $358,277,730 for only those two basic production factors.

And heating alone would cost Santa a fortune. According to National Geographic, the average temperature at the North Pole (minus wind chill) is -30 degrees Fahrenheit, 100 degrees away from a toasty room temperature. To heat just an average-sized house at the North Pole — like the abode of Mr. and Mrs. Claus — would cost $7,486, just for the winter… and the North Pole is chilly all year long. When you factor in all the workshop space and living quarters for the elves, I think it’s safe to say that Santa is running a very unprofitable business, since all he gets in return is cookies. The giggles of glee from little children sure don’t pay the bills.
Plausible? No. — Kaitlin Miller

Reindeer: Real?

How much food would it take to sustain eight reindeer each year? Oh, just about 365 bales of hay, plus pelleted feed, according to data provided by the Bronx Zoo. As far as the changing weather conditions, reindeer would thrive in the Arctic tundra conditions of Santa’s estate, and could survive in warmer areas of the world while Santa delivers presents if equipped with bug spray and fresh water, according to Diana Belich, a supervisor for the Department of Special Animal Exhibits & Operations at the Bronx Zoo. According to Belich, the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh would be more environmentally friendly than a car, but “the reindeer would emit enough methane gas to contribute to the problem of global warming.” And just how would they make it from rooftop to rooftop? Those elves must have invented some special shoes because reindeer’s hooves work best on smooth icy surfaces, Belich said.
Plausible? Maybe. — Katherine Goodwin