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Every Christmas Eve something, nothing short of magical, would happen. Families around the world would leave a glass of milk and some cookies for a late night visitor who would fly around the world in a sleigh pulled by a team of reindeers with a bag of goodies for children around the world.His name is Santa Claus, Kris Kringle or Old Saint Nick and whichever name you use for this jolly old fellow, his looks are unmistakable the world over – usually a short bearded, fat old man, in a bright red suit.But where did he come from? Why does he do it? And how does he accomplish this gargantuan mission in one night?Well, the original St. Nicholas lived in southwestern Turkey in the 4th century and as the Bishop of Myra, he was credited with doing a number of miracles involving sailors and children.Santa Claus making his roundsAfter his death this led him to become a patron saint. As a saint he was given his own “feast day” that was celebrated on December 6th.Christmas DayAt about the same time Nicholas lived, Pope Julius I decided to establish a date for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.Since no one knew the actual date Jesus was born, the Pope decided to assign the holiday to December 25th.There had long been a pagan midwinter festival at this time of year and the Pope hoped to use the holiday to christianize the celebrations.Saint Nicholas’s Feast Day quickly became associated with December 25th and his connection with Christmas was established.It was after this happened that the tradition developed that he would supposedly visit homes on Christmas Eve and deliver gifts to children on the ‘nice’ list.The children who Santa would place on the ‘naughty’ list are not given anyIt’s been said that Dutch settlers brought the tradition of Saint Nicholas to the North American city of New Amsterdam (which the British would later rename “New York”).Perhaps nothing has fixed the image of Santa Claus so firmly in the minds of people as a poem entitled ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ written by Clement Moore in 1822.These stories held that a happy little elf-like man presided over midwinter pagan festivals. In the poem, Moore depicts the Saint as a tiny man with a sleigh drawn by eight miniature reindeer. They fly him from house to house and at each residence he comes down the chimney to fill stockings hung by the fireplace with gifts.Moore had written the poem for the enjoyment of his own family, but in 1823 it was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel. It became very popular and has been reprinted countless times under the more familiar title,Alex Pietrangelo Jersey, ‘The Night Before Christmas.’Where did Moore get the reindeer? The Saami people of northern Scandinavia and Finland often used reindeer to pull their sledges around and this found its way into the poem. Reindeer, which are much sturdier animals than North American deer, are well adapted to cold climates with their heavy fur coats and broad, flat hooves for walking on snow.As time went by, more and more was added to the Santa Claus legend.Bright Red SuitThomas Nast, a 19th century cartoonist, did a series of drawings for Harper’s Weekly. Nash’s vision of Santa had him living at the North Pole.Nash also gave him a workshop for building toys and a large book filled with the names of children who had been naughty or nice.The 19th century Santa was often shown wearing outfits of different colors: purple,Tony Esposito Jersey, green and blue in addition to red.This slowly faded out so that by the beginning of the 20th century the standard image of Santa Claus was a man in a red suit trimmed with white.Santa PhysicsSanta has been very popular in the 20th and 21st centuries but in the past few years he has had a few detractors.In January of 1990, an article appeared in Spy magazine under the name of Richard Waller that was skeptical of Santa’s capability to do what he supposedly does each Christmas Eve.The article, after its initial appearance in the magazine, was republished innumerable times on the web and emailed all over the Internet.Among other things, Waller calculated that Santa, moving from east to west around the globe,Trevor Daley Jersey, could use the different time zones and the rotation of the Earth to extend his night for as long as 31 hours.Since he needs to visit approximately 92 million households,Vladimir Tarasenko Jersey, according to Waller this means he needs to travel approximately 75.5 million miles.The article states that the distance divided by the time, means Santa’s sleigh must move at a speed of 650 miles per second, 3000 times faster than the speed of sound, to complete its route.Waller then went on to calculate that if every child gets a two-pound present, Santa’s sleigh must weigh about 321,300 tons.He then ups that figure to 353,430 tons to account for some 214,Vince Dunn Jersey,200 reindeer he thinks would be needed to pull that heavy a sleigh.The article notes that if the sleigh and team attempt to move through the atmosphere at 650 miles per second they would be exposed to enormous air resistance (the same way a spacecraft gets heated upon reentering the atmosphere) and they would explode in flames.Waller sarcastically ends the article noting that if there ever was a Santa, given the acceleration forces such a flight would subject him to, he must now be dead.High-Tech SantaNumerous rebuttals have been written to the Spy magazine article. Some point out that there are flaws in Waller’s calculations or assumptions. For instance, the payload problem could be handled by making numerous return trips to the pole. It increases the length of the total trip by a tiny fraction, but divides the weight of the sleigh by the number of return trips.Other writers note that Christmas does not come on the same day in all countries. Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas a few days after December 25th which means Santa gets at least two shots a year to complete his mission. One writer noted that the number of stops needed in the calculation is incorrect since dividing the total number of children by the average number of children per household to get the number of stops does not consider families where there are no children at all.Roger Highfield, who wrote the book ‘Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas,’ suggests that Wallers has not considered that Santa might have some high tech solutions to his problems. For example,Ryan Suter Jersey, “inertial dampers” – a device that’s referred to in the Star Trek movies to keep the crew from getting shmoshed’ as the Enterprise accelerates to Warp 8 – could be used by Santa to solve his high-acceleration problems. The technology isn’t known to our science, but to Santa, well, who knows?In fact,Josh Harding Jersey, some people have even suggested that Santa has the technology to manipulate time. By creating an artificial time bubble around his sleigh and his person, he could speed himself up as much as is needed. Again,Patrick Sharp Jersey, this is far beyond human technology, but…However Santa does it,Brandon Mashinter Jersey, he seems to manage each year to delight millions of children on Christmas morning as he has done for over a century. Perhaps it’s just magic.