Each year parents are left baffled by questions asked by their children about Father Christmas and his Christmas Eve journey, with their only solution to turn to magic as an explanation behind his magnificence.
Cobra Electronics, experts in navigation, conducted research to find out whether it was feasible that eight reindeer, a sleigh and a portly, jolly fellow in a red suit could deliver over 30.4 billion presents to 1.9 billion good girls and boys in just one night.
Stephen Gill, Product Marketing Manager at Cobra Electronics, said: “With Christmas on its way, we thought it was only right that we celebrate the greatest journey of the year by having a look at the truth behind it. For many years, Father Christmas has pulled the wool over millions of adults’ and children’s eyes by allowing magic to be the reason behind his speedy deliveries; however, we know better.
“We instructed the development team to conduct research into the logistics behind the Christmas Eve trip and discovered that it is not simply hocus pocus after all. In fact, there is a lot of ingenuity, organisation and commitment displayed by Father Christmas and his band of elves to ensure that all the good children of the world wake up with a smile on their faces.”
Cobra’s development team discovered through research and calculations, that by taking advantage of the Earth’s time zones and rotation, and by travelling from east to west, Father Christmas is able to extend Christmas Eve night from 12 to 31 hours.
This means that in order to be able to deliver toys and gifts to the 542,857,143 homes (worked out with an average rate of 3.5 children per household), Father Christmas’s sleigh must be able to travel at 1.8 trillion km/s. He must also be able to park the sleigh, grab his sack, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, leave the presents under the tee, take a bite of his mince pie, climb back up the chimney, get back in the sleigh and set off for the next house within 0.0002 seconds.
Stephen Gill said: “We’re not sure exactly how Father Christmas manages to keep to this year in and year out, but there must be some pretty impressive technology behind it. It’s a shame he’s keeping it to himself though, as we’re sure the Royal Mail and other companies could make jolly good use of it this Christmas. But one thing is for sure, he deserves all those mince pies and the rest of the year off for spreading so much joy in just a single ‘night’.”
Cobra Electronics has created an infographic explaining the science behind the sleigh ride, what he feasts on in every country around the world and how he stays looking the same.
