A jolly old fellow who sees thousands of Calgary children each holiday season is taking precautions against swine flu.

Jerry Weeks will visit with as many as 20,000 children over the next six weeks at Santa's Playland in Market Mall.

Weeks, who has represented Santa for 20 years, said he won't be taking any extra precautions this year, but he is aware of the risk of catching and spreading H1N1.

"I am very conscientious every year about health and germs because of how many kids I do see," he said.

"I wear gloves and that's part of the costume but it also … creates a barrier between the kids and I. I have a very big supply of gloves in my dressing room … The beard gets washed every day. We have to make sure that Santa stays healthy too."

Santa won't turn a child away

Santa's Playland includes candy canes, Christmas trees, and sanitizer stations. If a child looks ill, Weeks will quietly ask the parent to wipe a nose for the sake of a photo.

"As Santa, we don't turn anyone away. We just try to treat them the same as anybody else," he said. "We are just very careful."

If Weeks doesn't feel well, he doesn't report to work.

Jennifer Andrews, who runs a Santa school in Calgary, has been advocating similar precautions to all city Santas.

Elves help with hand sanitizing

Even the elves are taking H1N1 seriously, she said.

"Typically elves hand out candy canes, but our elves have been helping with the hand sanitizing," she said.

Andrews is asking shopping malls to post signs asking everybody to sanitize their hands before seeing Santa.

"Santa is definitely a role model for children and if he's aware and concerned about it, and if he's encouraging them to do that then hopefully kids will do that more so that in their regular every day lives when they're not visiting Santa they're still thinking about making sure that their hands are clean and that their not spreading germs," she said.