How Big Would Santa’s Warehouse Be?

How Big Would Santa’s Warehouse be?

It’s something that, as children, we often wonder – how does Santa and his elves make and deliver all those presents? But more importantly, where does he store them before the morning of the big day? In this article, we’ll be calculating approximately – using estimated numbers – how big both his workshop and his warehouse would have to be in order to be as efficient as possible when it comes to building, storing and delivering billions of presents all over the world.

Let’s do the calculations

Despite common belief, it’s actually relatively easy to calculate the size of both Santa’s workshop and his warehouse, especially if we break it down into steps.

Firstly, we’d have to know, approximately, how many people around the globe celebrate Christmas by giving presents. Secondly, we’ll estimate how many of those people are children, but to help keep the maths simple, Santa will have to give one present to each child. Thirdly, we’ll need to work out how many presents must be built each hour in order to meet that quota, depending on the weeks and hours the elves work.

After that, we’ll work out how many elves will be needed to build all the presents, together with how much space they require in order to work comfortably. They might even need a communal kitchen or canteen, together with some bathrooms, so we should take that into consideration also. This will give us a rough estimate of how big the workshop will have to be.

So let’s break down the numbers:

1. Around 2.4 billion people around the world celebrate Christmas by giving presents, with approximately 1.2 billion of those being children. If we limit Santa to giving one present a year, that means his elves will have to build 1.2 billion presents.
2. Let’s assume the elves work 50 weeks a year and build toys for 40 hours each week, which comes in at 2,000 hours a year. In turn, this means that around 600,000 presents would have to be made annually.
3. If each elf takes an hour to make each present, no matter what it is, then 600,000 elves will need to be working all at the same time.
4. To ensure that the elves are working in comfortable conditions, each one will need their own space, but as they’re small, we’ll estimate that they’ll most likely require approximately one square foot of space each.
5. If we add on the space needed for a canteen and some toilet cubicles (another square foot each), then we come to our final conclusion about how big the workshop must be in order to make the presents that must then be transported to Santa’s warehouse.

Having done the calculations, it’s clear that Santa’s workshop would need to have a footprint that’s at least 1.2 million square feet.

Working out the size of the warehouse is just as easy – we’ll firstly estimate the delivery windows with 1.2 billion presents in mind, then we’ll approximate how much space each toy would take up in Santa’s warehouse. This will give us a rough idea as to how big Santa’s warehouse would need to be in order to store his stock as safely as possible.

Again, let’s break down the maths into two simple steps:

1. Assuming that there’s an 18 hour delivery window for 1.2 billion presents and each toy takes up around 1 cubic foot, then Santa’s warehouse would need to be at least 1.2 billion cubic foot
2. A warehouse that was 20 foot tall would then take up around 60 million square feet, so the total warehouse footprint would have to be approximately 61.2 million square feet – the equivalent 1,400 acres or 2.2 square miles

So, Santa’s warehouse would have to be at least 61.2 million square feet in order to store all the toys away until the big day arrives. It’s a good thing that both the workshop and the warehouse are invisible on Google Maps, otherwise everyone would know where his operations take place!

How could Multy Lift help Santa to maximise his warehouse space?

Here at Multy Lift, we have a wide range of space-saving options for Santa, and other warehouse owners alike, ensuring that you can make the most of the space your premises offers.

Mezzanine floors will help to maximise the floor space you already have, enabling you to store goods or equipment either underneath or on top of it. This stacking effect is perfect for those who are looking to free up some floor space, allowing for excellent maneuverability, either on foot or whilst operating a piece of material handling equipment, such as a forklift or reach truck.

Warehouse racking is also ideal for saving warehouse space. You’ll be able to vertically store the goods you hold, allowing you to make full use of the ceiling height as well as the floor space. You’ll also be given the option to have narrow aisles, allowing for the installation of additional shelving. We even have VNA forklifts, including those manufactured by Aisle-Master, that have been specifically designed for navigating tight, more confined aisles.

All of our equipment has been safety checked as per regulation, so you can rest assured that those who operate the machines will be in safe hands at all times when choosing to rent or buy new and used forklifts from us – even Santa’s elves.