How Santa Delivers All Those Gifts by Christmas Morning

Santa Claus needs a tremendous amount of tech backup to effectively deliver presents to every child's house in the world before the sun rises.

Peter Baynham, screenwriter of blockbuster film Arthur Christmas, spent nearly five years calculating exactly how Santa could deliver so many presents to so many houses in such a short amount of time.

The film — in theaters now — follows the son of Santa (Arthur) as he uses his father's high-tech operation for an urgent mission. The first few scenes of the film shows how modern-day Santa makes his way across globe with the help of advanced GPS systems, cutting-edge gadgets and multitudes of elves.

"I really believe the way we did it in the movie could actually be done by Santa," Arthur Christmas screenwriter Peter Baynham told Mashable. "We did a lot of math and got creative."

"We're used to seeing the North Pole with scenic sugar cottages and elves making toys out of wood, but we wanted to show how Santa could actually deliver all those gifts today," Baynham said. "Kids are exposed to technology and mobile devices at a young age now, so we thought it would be fun to introduce a new side of Santa."

According to Baynham — who also wrote Borat and Arthur — one million field elves would be needed for the delivery part of the mission, plus 25,000 elves back at the mission control headquarters at the North Pole. It would take 12 hours to complete.

Elves working in the field would work in teams of three: the Delivery Elf would deliver the presents under the tree, the Gadget Elf would be in charge of the high-tech gadgets needed to zap up the cookies and milk and get past the locks and alarms, and the Field Elf Sergeant would keep a lookout for unexpected hazards such as barking dogs and waking parents. There would also an elite team of Red Berets that would accompany Santa at all times to ensure his safety.

To hit every house in time, each elf team of three would only be allowed to spend 18.14 seconds at each household. Some of the key gadgets would include a device that peers under beds and around corners, a suction gun, stocking filler guns, night vision and a vacuum to clean up crumbs.

The sleigh would also be big — really big. In fact, it would be four miles wide. It would land in one town and then fly to a nearby location.

"At first, we thought the sleigh would slowly move the whole time and the elves would jump back on the sleigh after deliveries, but we realized it would never effectively get around the world that way," Baynham said.

Santa would also have to start at the Northeast tip of New Zealand to start and zigzag West across the globe, he added: "Time zones make it tricky, but he would have to stay ahead of the rising sun."

Baynham also noted the sleigh would run on bio-fuel so it would be eco-friendly.

"We went back and forth with different theories, but decided this was the most accurate," Baynham said. "However, it's clear that Santa needs to rely a lot on the help of his elves and technology."

Do you think this method would help Santa deliver all of those presents in just 12 hours? Does incorporating technology into delivering presents take away from the magic of Santa?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Editor's note: In an earlier version of this post, we spelled Peter Baynham's name incorrectly. We apologize for the error.