Santa has 32 pairs of red socks and 16 pairs of white socks in his big sack. If Santa picks out 3 socks at random from his sack, he is certain to get a matching pair.

With only 2 colors (red and white), drawing 3 socks guarantees at least 2 of the same color by the pigeonhole principle. This is a classic application of the principle that with n items and k categories, selecting n-1+1 items ensures at least one category has 2 items. The number of pairs doesn't matter - only the count of distinct colors.