It was only a few days until Christmas, and Santa was dreading all the stockings he would have to fill. That night, he had a strange dream. As he sat staring at a huge pile of socks of seven different colors (azure, beige, cabernet, daffodil, ecru, fuschia, and gold), the Ghost of Christmas Past appeared and said, "If you were to pick two socks at random, the odds are 50:50 that you would get a matched pair." He then waved his hand and all the gold socks vanished, but the Ghost stated that the odds of getting a matched pair were still 50:50.

He waved his hand again, and the fuschia socks vanished, but again he stated that the odds were still 50:50.

In turn, he made the ecru, daffodil, and cabernet socks vanish, but in each case he said the odds of a matched pair remained at 50:50.

At this point, Santa counted the remaining socks and found that he had 25 left. He asked the Ghost how many socks he had made vanish. The Ghost replied, "All I'll tell you is that it is a multiple of the original number of socks of your favorite color."

What is Santa’s favorite color and how many socks did the Ghost make vanish?