Santa's best location: Kyrgyzstan

I'm all for Christmas efficiency - who wouldn't want to help make Santa's job just a little bit easier? It can't be easy delivering all those toys on time, and it looks like a consulting firm has a spankin' suggestion for Mr. K. Kringle.

Santa Claus should leave the North Pole and relocate to Kyrgyzstan to optimise the delivery of Christmas presents, a Swedish engineering firm says.

The Sweco consulting firm found Kyrgyzstan was the most logical base to avoid time-wasting detours.

It took into account main population centres and the Earth's rotation.

Santa would have 34 microseconds for each chimney stop, and his reindeer would have to travel at nearly 6,000km (3,700 miles) per second.

The company insisted that helping Santa deliver presents to 2.5bn households worldwide was a serious exercise.

"Identifying Santa's optimal Christmas route is not just something we do for fun. Sweco uses the same technique when carrying out assignments on behalf of our clients," a statement on the company's website said.

Sweco revealed the precise location where Santa should live - Latitude, (N) 40.40, Longitude, (E) 74.24.

"Santa Claus' starting point lies 35km (22 miles) north of Kapkatash and 13km (8 miles) north of Camp Snerif, both in Kyrgyzstan," Sweco concludes. -- bbc.co.uk