A Santa Crossword for the Holidays

The legend of Santa Claus is based on the real-life St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop in Myra, Turkey. St. Nicholas was known for his love for children and the poor. He has many names, but Santa Claus is his most famous name, and that comes from the Dutch "Sinterklaas" (based on "Saint Nicholas"). He's also known as Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Christmas Man (in German) and Grandfather Frost (in Russian).

Since he has to cover the whole planet in 31 hours (thanks to time differences) that means Santa's sleigh must go at about 1,800 miles per second. I hope he wears a seatbelt! No one knows for sure exactly where he lives. We know he lives at the North Pole, but that covers a lot of ground. In Nordic legends, he is said to live in a small hill in Lapland, Finland. Quite far from the United States, then!

Here are some interesting numbers (this is a math blog.) If Santa delivered presents to every child on Earth, he would be carrying at least 400,000 tons of presents. Nine reindeer can't pull that much weight (not to mention the sleigh and Santa himself)!  In fact, he would need at least 360,000 reindeer. Good luck remembering all those reindeer names!

On Christmas Eve, do you ever wonder where Santa is? Don't worry, you can keep an eye on Santa's progress with GPS! The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) is the biggest program for this and will show you Santa's progress in several languages.

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In honor of Santa and his reindeer, I've created two crossword puzzles for the holiday season. The 18 words used in both puzzles are: bed, Blitzen, Christmas Eve, Claus, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donner, eight, Nicholas, North Pole, Prancer, Rudolph, sleigh, snow, stockings and Vixen. One crossword includes a word bank which makes it easier to solve while the other puzzle does not.  Answer keys for both puzzles are included. 

These might be fun for the kids to do while they are waiting for Santa to arrive!