Taking advantage of the seasonal lull, about 150 Santas from a dozen countries gathered on Monday for their annual Santa Claus convention.
The three-day convention ends on Wednesday when Danish strongman Asbjorn Riis is to be named honorary Santa Claus 2008.
Riis, a professional wrestler, is known from appearances in various reality and wrestling shows and for a part in the movie The 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas.
The Santas were meeting at the Bakken amusement park near the Danish capital, Copenhagen, which has hosted the convention since 1963.
Over the years they have discussed topics ranging from international taxation of gifts to the standard size of a chimney.
Two of the visiting Santas, Bernd Bender of Germany and Albert McCarthy of Malta, said they planned to attend a scheduled event on Tuesday when Santas cycle through central Copenhagen.
Organisers said the event aimed to show that Santas are ”attentive” to their own health, and so should ”people with high body indexes”.
Bender (51), an architect and medical engineer from Aachen, said it was the first convention he attended. He said he enjoyed seeing children become ”speechless and wide-eyed” when — primed by their parents — he is able to tell them of their achievements during the past year as well as what they could do better.
In a nod to the environment, the Santas were on Tuesday to test the water quality at the Copenhagen harbour front at Fisketorvet.
McCarthy (65), a retired tour operator, said he and other Santas ”try to spread goodwill”. Among his stops at Christmas is a drug rehabilitation centre where he hands over gifts from ”mothers, girlfriends, wives and children”.
On Malta, he said, he doesn’t use reindeer when he delivers his gifts — and he ends the telephone interview with a hearty ”Il-Milied it-Tajjeb [Merry Christmas]”. — Sapa-dpa