Desperately seeking Santa

Santa Claus must wear an anorak if his ubiquity on the Internet is anything to go by. He has any number of e-mail addresses to which kids can send present demands.

Their problem, of course, is to decide which is the real Santa. Should they write to santa@uk online. co.uk, or ask the Santa at http://www. itl.net/barclaysquare, or maybe http://www. cable.co.uk/santa?

I am suspicious of the Santa at http://www. mofile .fi/rec/spsanta/claus.htm, where the reindeer speaks Spanish (Hola, Soy Rudolph!), and the shade- wearer at http://our world. compuserve.com/home pages/zman/santa.htm.

A more plausible contender is at http://www. claus.com, except that he has a link to Mrs Claus's recipes (non-alcoholic wassail), which is strange because there is little evidence Santa has a wife.

It is, of course, conceivable that none of these Santas are genuine, but one site does give us a hint about the way he now gets around. At http:// christmas.com/sleigh-stats. html, there are details of the MH- 2600 Cybersleigh. It is reportedly built of a combination of adamantium, mithril, and vibranium, and is powered by a Photon Particle Generator. Now that's technology.

DAVID BOWEN