As Christmas Day approaches parents all over the UK are busy answering questions left, right and centre about Father Christmas and his mischievous elves (should you be lucky enough to have them visiting)!
But as we all know, we don’t have the answers to all the questions that children all across the country are dreaming up.
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Two such questions arise every year, how does Father Christmas deliver all his gifts in one evening? How many exactly does he have to deliver?
The brains at Packaging Online have calculated this year’s answer for you to tick one thing off your Christmas to-do list.
They looked at population data to determine how many children are in the UK of ‘believing age’ (between 0 and 11) and found out how many boxes Santa would need to work his miracles.
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Their calculations showed that the big man would need 19,146,220 boxes to make all his deliveries! This includes 1 box for stocking filling goodies and one for an extra little something under the tree.
We dread to think how much Father Christmas would be set back by having to buy this many boxes!
How many of these would he need to deliver gifts to your area we hear you ask. Well, the Packaging Online experts also worked this out for you! They calculated how many boxes Father Christmas would need by area, showing his busiest stops in the UK.
Let’s take a look;
Rank
Area
Total
1
London
1,427,854
2
South East
1,325,125
3
North West
1,060,410
4
East
918,758
5
West Midlands
878,994
6
Yorkshire and The Humber
789,762
7
South West
741,258
8
Scotland
682,648
9
East Midlands
675,957
10
Wales
417,985
11
North East
356,747
12
Northern Ireland
297,612
Whilst Wales isn’t the biggest country within the UK, it did make the top 10 on the list of Father Christmas’s busiest stops. The Packaging Online team calculated that he would need to deliver to 208,992 children within the country, needing 417,985 boxes!
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Rank
Area
Total Number of Boxes
1
Cardiff
103,184
2
Rhondda Cynon Taf
67,098
3
Swansea
61,742
4
Caerphilly
49,594
5
Newport
48,940
6
Carmarthenshire
48,704
7
Flintshire
42,118
8
Bridgend
39,130
9
Wrexham
38,490
10
Neath Port Talbot
37,142
11
Vale of Glamorgan
36,800
12
Pembrokeshire
31,092
13
Powys
30,656
14
Gwynedd
30,316
15
Conwy
27,864
16
Torfaen
26,160
17
Denbighshire
25,626
18
Monmouthshire
21,874
19
Blaenau Gwent
18,294
20
Isle of Anglesey
17,812
21
Merthyr Tydfil
17,528
22
Ceredigion
15,806
Cardiff is the busiest stop in Wales for Father Christmas with over 103,000 boxes of gifts to deliver. This is as Father Christmas has 51,592 children to deliver to in the Welsh capitol city alone! The West Walian county of Ceredigion is his quietest stop in Wales, delivering 15,806 boxes of gifts to 7,903 children in the area.
Overall Results
Unsurprisingly London is the UK’s busiest hotspot on the Christmas gifting stop list, with Father Christmas delivering 1,427,854 boxes of gifts to the children of the capitol. His busiest London Borough is Croydon, with 65,016 children to deliver to, meaning 130,032 boxes to deliver! The city of London is his quietest stop with only 2,634 boxes to pop under the tree.
London is closely followed by its surrounding areas in the South East of England, delivering 1,325,125 boxes of goodies!
His third busiest stop-off is the North West of England, including cities such as Manchester and Liverpool!
With this many presents to deliver we dread to think how many sweet treats and beverages he must consume in one night!