The Ice Road Truckers are the quintessential cargo drivers, reliable, tenacious and brave. Todd Dewey, Lisa Kelly and Hugh Rowland are these things and more. They’ve proved time and time again that they are warriors of the road willing to battle through ferocious storms and freezing temperatures.
But, while the Truckers cover vast areas of North America and deserve all the credit they get, there is one cargo trip that even they can’t rival…
Once a year something miraculous happens. In the space of 32 hours 1.6 billion deliveries are made to 5,556 homes a second, by a certain red wearing bearded hero, many describe it as a Christmas miracle.
Surely Father Christmas in the greatest delivery man of them all?
The journey he makes each Christmas Eve is so incredible it’s almost unbelievable. There are sooooo many questions, how long does it take? How many houses are we talking here? What’s the bunce?
Through some digging around (with a lot of help from The Big Bang who did the number crunching a few years back) we’ve got some of these answers.
How long is the journey?
Around 212,030,000 miles.
How many houses does Santa visit?
With an average of 2.5 children per house, Santa is looking to have 640 million stops.
How much does it all cost?
It’s estimated that the presents cost him over £279 billion each year, which is just under the GDP of Ireland.
What about the mince pies and milk he’s left?
Well, that’s very much a case of thanks, but no thanks. it’s estimated that Santa will take on 150 billion calories by the end of the night, 60,000 times his daily recommended intake. This includes 130 million litres of milk and 40,000 metric tonnes of mince pies.
We haven’t even mentioned the reindeers… Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and of course Rudolph, everyone’s favourite red-nosed reindeer. There are 36 legs between this lot who reach speeds of 1,800 miles per second, forget horsepower, we’re talking reindeer power.
What a journey it is through time zones, landscapes and crazy weather conditions, all for the love of festive cheer. So, if you get a chance this Christmas Eve, spare a thought for Santa who is sure to be gallivanting across the world somewhere, perhaps just above.
While we might not quite hit the speeds of Santa, the same goes for anyone else working this Christmas perhaps friends, family, or yourself. As Santa proves, we can’t all be sitting in front of a log-fire watching television… Some of us need to make the magic happen.
From all of us, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
