FEATURE/The Truth About Santa; American Greetings Study Shows Santa Ignores Government Regulations and Defies Laws of Physics

Business Wire, Nov 20, 2000

Feature Editors

NOTE: A PHOTO relating to this story will be available for

journalists to download beginning today at www.newstream.com

FEATURE...

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--Nov. 20, 2000

Everyone knows Christmas is a magical time of year -- so everyday logic simply can't be applied to Santa Claus, his industrious elves and his eight tiny reindeer.

But just for fun, American Greetings, the company that creates most of Santa's wrapping paper and Christmas cards, conducted an in-depth study to find out what would happen if the usual rules and regulations were applied to Jolly Old St. Nick's U.S. travels. Here's what they discovered:

Assuming Santa will travel east to west to take advantage of the earth's rotation, he will have 31 hours to complete his mission this Christmas Eve. During this time, he will stop at 87 million homes, and will leave cards and gifts for an astounding 456 children every second! American Greetings says the actual total may be slightly less, since the study made no attempt to distinguish between naughty and nice children.

Sound amazing? Well, consider this. If each child receives only a single two-pound gift, Santa's sleigh will be carrying a payload of 50,900 tons. Talk about your "fit and buff" reindeer! (American Greetings thinks Santa must pay for personal trainers during the off-season.)

To carry all those gifts, Santa will definitely need to "super-size" his sleigh. Assuming each gift measures just two cubic feet, the sleigh will need to be as large as nearly three Empire State Buildings stacked together.

The American Greetings study shows Santa must also be a master of diplomacy and persuasion. Just think... He crosses national borders freely and without incident. He has never once checked in with customs or immigration, and no one inspects his toys for safety. And those amazing "fit and trim" reindeer never need a food or water break!

Finally, if you think your holiday budget is stretched to the limits, pity poor Santa. The American Greetings study shows that it would require 109,000 elves working 12 solid weeks to make enough gifts for each child to receive one by Christmas Eve.

Assuming Santa is paying the median salary of $21 per hour required for a skilled craftsman, he's shelling out more than $1 billion dollars to cover the elf payroll! And that doesn't include medical, dental or a 401K plan.

"The Santa Claus Project" was compiled by American Greetings after consulting with information provided by scientific, health, children, transportation and government experts.

Note to Editors: Prints, transparencies & several digital bar graphs and charts illustrating trivia available upon request. B Roll (BETA) featuring shopping mall scenes, Christmas artists at work & kids' funny comments about Santa available to TV. Also available: "The Business of Christmas," holiday gift ideas, creative wrapping tips, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" gift wrap photo array, creative ways to recycle cards and wrap, releases/fact sheets about musical sound chip celebrity ornaments, Little Rascals and Three Stooges ornaments and more. Call or email for press kits or special requests.

About American Greetings: American Greetings is the world's largest publicly held creator, manufacturer and distributor of greeting cards and special occasion products. Its staff of artists, designers and writers comprises one of the largest creative departments in the world and helps consumers "say it best" by supplying more than 15,000 greeting card designs to retail outlets in nearly every English-speaking country. The company markets cards under the brand names American Greetings, Forget Me Not, Carlton Cards and Gibson Greetings.

Business units include Balloon Zone, DateWorks calendars, Designers' Collection stationery, DesignWare party goods, GuildHouse candles, Learning Horizons educational products, Magnivision reading glasses and Plus Mark seasonal gift wrap and boxed greetings.

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings employs more than 21,000 associates around the world and drives more than $2 billion in annual sales. More information is available on the corporate web site: www.americangreetings.com