But these days even the symbol of Christmas for millions of children around the world is taking some unusual steps to keep up with the pace of modern life.

To help him with what has become a year-round job, Santa has hooked up to cyberspace so fans who can't travel to the Arctic Circle can see and talk to him live online and watch him receive guests in his office.

This year some 500,000 people, many of them Japanese, are expected to flock to his Santa Village, tucked between snow-covered fells in Finland's isolated Lapland region.

Around 5,000 people, mostly, but not all, children, will sit on his lap each day during the busy December weeks.

For the rest of us, the website www.santaclauslive.com launched last month, may be just the ticket.

Santa says his focus is still to bring joy and hear the wishes of people who travel to see him in person from as far away as Australia, Japan and Tahiti.

In fact Santa is worried that the rapid growth of the personal computer and the Internet -- which each day reaches millions of more people -- may limit children's creativity.

"I'm not saying the Internet and the computer are bad, but a computer is limiting and has boundaries, whereas a child with a pen, or a few pieces of wood, a hammer and some nails has no limits," Santa told Reuters.

One thing is for sure, he need not fear for his own popularity or even challenges from Santas in other north European countries trying to steal some of his limelight.

The Santa I met during one of his brief coffee breaks -- a tall and large man with a long white beard and equipped with a red mobile phone -- still brought some visitors, both young and old, to a state of bewilderment.

"We're flown here for a quick two-hour trip, but I'm over the moon to see Santa. It was my dream to meet him in real life," said 26-year-old Eriko from Tokyo. "It was worth the trip. He is very popular in Japan, people are crazy about him."

(China Daily 12/21/2000)