Today is the busiest day of the year for UPS, so you kind of have to wonder what it's like for the folks up there in the North Pole. Chana Joffe-Walt did, and consulted with sources from FedEx and from UPS to figure out "What kind of delivery workforce would Santa need?" Joffe-Walt used Pew's figure that there are 760 million Christian children worldwide, then assumed that each child would get one gift from Santa. The results are in their full graphic form below, and they're not only adorable but also put one of the great myths of the shipping industry (and childhood dreams the world over) into perspective: while FedEx has 300,000 employees, Santa would need 12 million. 

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Esther Zuckerman