Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Chad Crowder (left) and Michael Blankenship of Virginia Tech Electric string lights on Blacksburg's Christmas tree Tuesday. Six men with three cherry pickers strung more than 1,000 lightbulbs on the tree that they estimated to be approximately 60 foot tall, topped with a metal framed star that is 6 feet in diameter. The official lighting of the tree will take place Friday.

A Virginia Tech Electric employee holds lights while stringing Blacksburg's Christmas tree Tuesday. The town's Christmas parade will take place at 7 p.m. Friday.

BLACKSBURG -- It's not just snow that's come early to town this year; Santa himself was spotted at the recreation center on Patrick Henry Drive this week.

St. Nick said he was in town preparing for a special project he does annually for kids and parents who live in the Blacksburg local calling area, including Christiansburg, Radford, Dublin, Salem, Pearisburg and Pulaski.

To save these parents and kids from schlepping to the mall to put in their Christmas gift orders, for the past three years Santa has arranged to call good boys and girls for a short chat about what they want for Christmas and advice about how to stay on the nice side of the official "Naughty or Nice" list.

To get a call, parents of children 3 to 8 years old must fill out and sign a special permission form available from the Blacksburg Parks and Recreation Department, which helps Santa put on this event. The jolly old elf will make all the calls from his North Pole workshop from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 18.

Completed forms must be submitted no later than Dec. 15, Santa said.

Returning the forms is easy. Parents may mail them to "Santa Calling," North Pole of Blacksburg, 725 Patrick Henry Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060. The forms can also be dropped off at the recreation center or sent by e-mail to Jack Leahy (jleahy@blacksburg.gov), who in an interview this week Santa called "one of my very best helpers."

Kids might be wondering, as a certain Roanoke Times reporter was, how Santa could possibly finish making all the toys, stocking the sleigh, harnessing the reindeer, appearing in all the Christmas parades across the New River Valley and still make these special phone calls.

He wasn't at all perturbed by the question.

"Santa is everywhere. And I've got a lot of helpers. Everybody's working overtime this next two weeks," he said.

One thing kids should remember: Santa really does know if you've been behaving yourself throughout the year.

Don't be surprised if when he calls, Santa gives advice like "Make sure you do all your math homework next year. I'm keeping track, you know" or "I hope you'll be nicer to your little sister, or I may have put you on the 2009 naughty list."

For grinches fretting about Santa possibly drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck for making these calls, St. Nick says not to worry because he does it all for free.