Christmas is approaching very, very fast, and there are a lot of kids out there who have already started writing their letters for Santa, hoping that the always-jolly fellow, for whom they've been waiting the whole year, will bring them all the toys they want. But given the fact that the world has evolved quite a lot since Santa Claus' reindeer-pulled sledge  first made its way from the North Pole to all the good kids who've listened to their parents, old Santa has most likely "upgraded" as well. How? Well, by adopting the most cutting edge technologies available in the human world.

In order to properly deliver the gifts (or coal lumps) to children from all around the world, Santa brought in some help to properly receive and manage all of the requests and letters. First of all, he bought a computer powerful enough to process all of the e-mails coming in from all over the world (Core i7, 12 GB DDR 3, the works), as well as powerful scanner with automatic document feeder. After all, he'll be receiving hundreds of thousands of “documents” written in all sorts of languages and, quite often, accompanied by hand-drawn graphics.

Besides getting some serious computing gear, Santa will also have faster assistants. And no, we're not talking about elves (not even cyber-elves) anymore, but about robots like the Wakamaru from Japan, the Roomba or even our beloved Pleo, who, under Santa's close supervision, will organize all the toys and gifts and prepare them for delivery. Plus, in order to keep track of that huge inventory, each item will receive a small RFID tag, while Santa will install one huge RFID reader on top of his North Pole warehouse/mansion (just hope that no hacker will venture that far to the North and attempt something nasty).

You might wonder why I haven't mentioned anything about the origin of all the toys and most of the gifts. Well, that's pretty simple, really. Where do most such products come from nowadays? Of course, from Shenzen, China, where the Santa-OEM and ODM have been working frantically since the first letters started to pour in.

And now, the big night has arrived. Santa's magical bag (one thing that will never change, since not even an army of U-Hauls or Fed-Ex trucks would be able to carry the burden) has been filled to the brink with anything from Wiis and iPods to clothing items and sweets, and then transported to the sledge. So, the old guy has his work cut out for him once again this year.

The sledge has been "upgraded" as well. No, the reindeer are still there, but they're now helped to pull the load by four strong rocket engines. The whole thing is controlled by an advanced navigation computer (think of a spaceship's navigation and computing power and add a few petaflops of processing power), assisted by GPS (of course, Santa's maps are the best, so there's no chance to wind up in a ditch, while looking for little Mary or Michael's house). Plus, as a back-up, Santa will also have his iCommunicationDevice (don't want to name names, do we now?) that he will use in order to keep in touch with his base in the North.

And if you've been good the whole year, then Santa might just have something good for you in the bag, after all. Perhaps even one cool gadget. If not, our Gadget Collection sure offers a wide array of choices.

P.S. As you can see right from this section's title, this is only a tale. Santa will never change, because he's one of the few things that remain constant in this ever-changing world.