Just How Many Cookies Will Santa Claus Eat on Christmas Eve? (2024)

By Kiri TannenbaumPublished: Dec 24, 2013 4:45 AM EST

With all that traveling, everyone knows Santa and his reindeers work up quite an appetite. But just how much food is being left for jolly old Saint Nicholas?

An exact date isn't clear, but it is believed that in the 1930s children began leaving cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. One theory was that some children who had been naughty were hoping the gesture would ensure a gift. The most popular cookies left out for Mr. Claus are chocolate chip and "America's #1 Cookie," the Oreo (perhaps because of a particular commercial from the 1980s).

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So just how many cookies is Santa "eating" on Christmas Eve? Let's get to the stats.

Approximately one billion cookies are left out around the world for Santa, and since Santa needs something to help wash them down, about 500 million glasses of milk are set out. (If we're talking about just the U.S., it's approximated that of the 100 million households, about 1 million are serving sweets to St. Nick.) According to An Idea, If Santa takes two bites of each cookie served around the world, he consumes roughly 336,150,386 cookies. As you probably know, Santa Claus doesn't always finish his glass of milk, so that means he drinks a little less than a million glasses, but the amount that's served would fill an olympic pool nine times over.

We all know Santa Claus has a jolly old belly, and that's likely because each Christmas Eve, according to an estimation by An Idea, he consumes just under 40 billion calories.

What kind of cookies are you leaving out for Santa Claus tonight?

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