Father Christmas's busy night: Old St Nick to eat 55,210 mince pies in Shropshire

Families in Shropshire will be leaving out 33,330 mince pies on Christmas Eve if every single home with children gets the traditional treat. A further 21,880 will be offered in Telford & Wrekin.

Altogether Christmas Eve in Shropshire will see Santa consuming 458,200 grams of fat and around 235,000 teaspoons of sugar.

And it's a good thing his reindeer will be taking charge of the navigation, because Father Christmas will be drinking some 2,760 litres of sherry.

Registered nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed says it sounds like Mr Claus is in for a bit of a rough night.

"I can imagine he wouldn’t be feeling great after eating so many mince pies," she said. "Most of us would probably struggle to eat two or three in a row before our brains and fullness signals kicked in to tell us we’ve had enough.

"Perhaps he should also be eating Rudolf’s carrot, which would give him some added fibre, vitamin A and vitamin C to go along with his mince pies?"

During his travels across England this year, Father Christmas will be tucking into a grand total of more than 6.5 million mince pies.

These would contain the equivalent of 100,000 bags of sugar.

He will also slosh his way through more than 4,000 average-sized bathtubs of sherry, making for a very merry Christmas indeed.

But Christmas doesn't have to be all naughty and no nice, according to Ms Stirling-Reed.

"The best thing about Christmas is obviously the food," she said.

"But that doesn’t just mean sweets, cakes and biscuits – I love thinking about all the festive, in-season foods that are available at this time of year including cranberries, chestnuts, sprouts, tangerines and parsnips.

"There are so many ways to enjoy them too.

"Maybe Father Christmas can put out a request for some of these when he delivers presents to the children next year."