The Technology of Christmas
Prep & Landing
When it comes to Christmas, Santa typically gets all the credit, but it turns out he has a crack team of elves that work behind the scenes. One such team is called Prep & Landing, and their job is to prepare each house for Santa’s arrival. Listen as we discuss the exploits of Wayne and Lanny, as they use various gadgets to make Santa’ job easier, including temperature reading haptic gloves, a mobile gingerbread tablet, knockout ornaments, and a hologram generator for sizing gifts.
Santa Claus: The Preparation
Every Year on Dec. 25, Santa Claus takes to the skies to deliver presents to all the good little girls and boys in the world, but that one day takes 364 days of preparation to pull off. A naughty/nice list must be compiled, millions of toys must be assembled, and the entire delivery route must be mapped out. This level of coordination requires a large, dedicated staff. How does Santa surveil the entire child population without being detected? Where does he get all the raw materials necessary for so many toys, and exactly who are these “elves”? These are just some of the questions we answer in this two-part episode.
Santa Claus: The Delivery
As they say in the cinematic classic “A Christmas Story”, every Christmas-celebrating child’s year revolves around December 25th. It is on this day that Santa Claus travel across the entire world on a flying reindeer-powered sleigh to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls. The real question is “How does he do it”? The feat seems impossible, and at first glance seems to defy the very laws of physics. Listen as we explain the entire Christmas Eve ride, from sleigh speed, to present delivery, down to the red suit he is famous for. Finally, we will postulate a Unified Theory of Santa that will make everyone a believer in the “magic” of Christmas.
Red One
For many generations, Santa has been seen as a portly fellow who’s hard work throughout the year makes Christmas Day magical for all. That view is becoming a thing of the past. We have done a lot of episodes on the technology of Christmas, and this year we have a new entry: Red One. This Santa is absolutely jacked, and has tremendously high powered technology at his control, including a duplicating machine that makes generating toys a cinch, and an enlarging ray that warps the reality around an object so that a toy car can become a full-sized working model. But there he still has a naughty list that requires round the clock surveillance without your knowledge. Oh and there is definitely a conspiracy to hide his existence from the world. Remember, nothing is free, including toys at Christmas. Even Santa has secrets.