Forget cookies and milk. Santa wants the H1N1 flu vaccine.

Many of America's Santas want to be given priority for the vaccine and not just because of those runny-nosed kids that will be sitting on their laps for the next month. There's also the not-so-little matter of that round belly. Research has suggested obesity could be a risk factor.

H1N1 flu has become such a worry that the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas featured a seminar on the illness at a recent conference. The group also urged its members to use hand sanitizer and take vitamins to boost their immune systems.

The president of the US organization said he also hopes parents will keep sick kids away.

"We don't want any child to go without seeing Santa, but it's not worth bringing your child to the mall, infecting the Santa and infecting the other children," Nicholas Trolli said.

He recalled a boy who informed him last year that he had a fever and had stayed home from school. But, the child said, his mother thought it was a good day to visit Santa.

Ernest Berger, president of another group called Santa America, asked an Alabama congressman last week to designate Santas a priority group for the H1N1 flu vaccine, like health care workers or caregivers for infants.

A spokesman for Republican US Rep Jo Bonner confirmed Berger's request and said staff members were looking into it.

Berger hopes Santas will use hand sanitizers and encourage children to do the same, without turning the experience into a hygiene lecture.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

(Agencies)