All this, with only a few elves and a reindeer with a bad head cold to help.

And so, to streamline the communications side of the business, to create greater efficiencies in logistics and fulfilment, Santa has "thought outside the stocking" and harnessed the power of the internet to help ease his fourth-quarter bottleneck.

A number of sites have arrived over the past couple of years, with most combinations of Santa and Claus, Father and Christmas, converted into domain names.

Many of the more commercial sites are now gearing up for their first real e-Christmas, having experimented with their formats and conducted market research in past Christmases in the six week window of opportunity their peculiar niche offers them.

One such site is Santa-Claus.com - "where Christmas clicks" - which is approaching its third Christmas. Stephen Bottomley, its managing director, has played a slow, patient game with the site, the only business of the Father Christmas company he runs and part owns.

Mr Bottomley has used the last two years attracting customers to the site with the entertainment services on it. And with some success-in November/December 1998 Santa-Claus.com attracted 250,000 unique users, and doubled that a year ago.

With the number of unique users expected to reach 1.5m this year, Mr Bottomley has 300 products in Santa's grotto, including toys, decorations and confectionery, which will be available in the UK this year. But that is only the beginning.

"We have a lot of traffic in the US, and our plan is to go through a learning process this year and then role it out next year, when we are going to open offices in California," says Mr Bottomley.

To that end the company has recently secured e-commerce trademark rights to 'Santa Claus' and 'Father Christmas' for e-commerce purposes in the US, adding to a growing stable of Santa domain names.

At the heart of Mr Bottomley's strategy is the good name of Santa himself. "The difference between us and most dotcom start-ups is they have to build a brand online - which is difficult," says Mr Bottomley. "Whereas we are piggybacking on one of the best known brands in the world: Santa Claus." Unlike dotcoms whose site names may be hard to remember, Santa-Claus.com only has to be heard once, he says.

Another site trading on the strength of the Santa brand is Santas.net, which is owned by Australian Media, a Sydney-based internet media company. Santas.net contains many of the same entertainment features, including songs, recipes and games.

"It is written from the persona of Santa Claus," says Andrew Molloy, managing director of Australian Media. "And judging by e-mails which are sent to Santa, it enjoys enormous credibility with readers, that this in fact could well be the Santa Claus. The domain name helps and sounds authentic."

Unlike Santa-Claus.com, which holds all its own stock, Santas.net sells through affiliates such as Amazon, Disney and Warner Brothers. Santas.net also derives revenue through advertising.

Millions of visitors

Santas.net attracted 3.5m visitors during November and December last year, its fourth year of trade, and even had around 450,000 in May/June, the year's Christmas low point. Mr Molloy attributes this to the content, which retains interest in the site while Santa spends the Aussie winter in Barbados.

Santa-Claus.com also attracts visitors durin