Santas around the world

A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume posed for photographers with dolphins at the animal exhibition park Marineland in Antibes, France.

Santa also posed for photographers at Marineland with a bear named Raspoutine …

… as well as with a killer whale named Valentin.

Beachgoers posed with a man wearing a Santa Claus costume as they stood in the Mediterranean Sea in Nice on the French Riviera.

Santa and friend at an event for PetSmart in Fort Worth, Texas.

A diver dressed as Santa fed sardines at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul.

A passerby walked past a snow-covered Santa Claus figure at the airport in Berlin.

Amelia Crane, 4, gave Santa Claus a hug during a visit to the Gateway Mall in Springfield, Ore.

Shoppers browsed stalls next to Santa Claus decorations at a Christmas market in Bristol, England.

Alex Gehl, who plays Santa Claus at Home Necessities furniture store, took a break in a parking lot behind the store.

Costumed participants of the annual “Best Father Frost” contest made their way through a courtyard in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Tourists and locals walked past a Santa Claus statue placed on a beach for a film shoot in the southern Indian city of Kochi.

A man dressed as Santa Claus ran during the Third Race of Integration and Progress in San Salvador.

A group of people wearing Santa Claus hats and swimming suits participated in the Great Santa Claus Jogging Event in the streets of Budapest.

These were among a few thousand Santa Clauses who rode through the streets of Gdansk and Gdynia, Poland.

A Pakistani man looked at a figure of Santa Claus outside a shop in Lahore.

Heidi Klum, dressed as Cleopatra, posed with Santa Claus during her Haunted Holiday Party benefiting Superstorm Sandy relief efforts

Zane Smith, 6, of Alton, Ill., visited with Santa Claus at the Haskell Playhouse in Alton, Ill.

Jemma Jaecks, 1, of West Bend visited Santa Claus during the sixth annual Breakfast with Santa at the West Bend Airport in West Bend, Wis.

A carried a statue of Santa Claus in the streets of downtown Guatemala City.

Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt posed next to a wax figure of Santa Claus at Madame Tussauds in London.

Valery Kokoulin, 47, dressed as Santa Claus, rang a bell on his self-made yacht to mark the end of the sailboat season, as the air temperature dropped to minus 9.4 degrees F. on the Yenisei River, outside Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

A man dressed as Santa Claus rode his bike in Offingen, Germany.

Joulupukki, the Santa Claus from Lappland of Finland, caressed a reindeer during a charity event in Budapest.

Valery Shevchenko, 40, dressed as Santa Claus, ice-sailed on the frozen Bolshoye lake near Parnaya, Russia.

A Christmas scene from Medellin, Colombia.

Santa Claus visited with Madilyn Bristow and her father, Mike Bristow, on the 2012 Alaska Railroad Holiday Train as it cruised along the Turnagain Arm to Indian and back to Anchorage, Alaska.

A group of clowns took turns posing for photos with Santa Claus at the Flight to North Pole event in San Antonio.