How many calories did Santa Claus consume on Christmas Eve?

Excerpt

In the twilight hours of Christmas Eve, many families in North America provide cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Avoiding excessive calorie intake is increasingly emphasized as part of a healthy life style [1]. An interesting question is how many calories Santa will have consumed that night on his trip to this region? This topic has been commented on extensively in the last few years (Table 1); however, the methodology used to determine households visited and calories consumed per household varies widely, is often incompletely disclosed, and when it is disclosed, often seems arbitrary. Furthermore, no source we reviewed attempted to address the specific metabolic demands of Santa Claus or the thermic effect of the food he consumes. Here we attempt to construct a more accurate picture of the Calories (herein use of a capital “C” refers to large/food calories) both ingested and expended by Santa Claus on Christmas Eve 2017. We restrict our data to the United States of America, where survey information is available on pertinent attitudes and behaviors in the population. …