Does Santa really eat all those cookies ?

Let's Dive Into Science! #3

Dec 25, 2020

Christmas is here ! Merry Christmas to all my readers !

When it comes to Christmas, researchers also want to share their opinion, sometimes even with a bit of humor ! Today, I’d like to share with you an unconventional and funny scientific article on Christmas and Santa Claus.

This article is “How many calories did Santa Claus consume on Christmas Eve?” by Gary Wormser & Alexander Ladenheim (2018). As the title suggests both researchers tried to evaluate the caloric intake of Santa Claus during Christmas Eve when he eats all those cookies and milk in the USA.

First they’ve estimated that over 36.1 million households in the US will leave out cookies and milk for Santa (based on a Pew survey). As we know the amount of calories contained in cookies and milk, it is then easy to calculate the caloric intake of Santa when he eats all those snacks : nearly 9 billions calories ! Over 2,7 millions-times the required daily intake for a man his size and age !

Of course, Santa lose some calories from all the chimney-climbing, but, according to the researchers calculations, Santa only consume 54.2 million calories in this process. That still leaves a lot of calories, Santa should thus gain a lot of weight each Christmas. As it’s not the case, we can only conclude that either Santa doesn’t eat all the cookies left out for him or that he definitely has a inhuman metabolism !

Gary Wormser wrote another piece this year, fearing for Santa’s health in the Covid19 epidemic. In fact, Santa could both be at risk to develop a severe illness if infected (due to his age and weight) and be a carrier of the virus and spread it across the world while distributing the presents !

Wormser then wonders what would be the security measures we could put in place. Should Santa ask for a negative Covid19 test before entering a house by the chimney ? Should he wear a mask ? Should he wash his hands with hand sanitizer before delivering the presents and eating the cookies ? Should he just leave the presents at the door so he doesn’t contaminate the house ? And how could Santa deliver the presents around the world if the borders restrictions are not lifted ? Should he self-quarantine for 14 days if he crosses the borders ?

So many questions that will never be answered, we will only see if Santa finally managed to deliver the presents when we see them bellow our Christmas trees !

I hope you enjoyed this lighter article ! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays !

Thank you for your attention ! Don’t hesitate to like, comment and share this article !

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