【Short film Archives】

You may never quite catch him in the flesh on Short film ArchivesChristmas Eve, but Santa's coming to life in a whole new way this year thanks to a project by cloud communications platform Twilio.

Parents can now give their little ones the chance to have a personal phone chat with an adorably squeaky-voiced elf from the North Pole through the SantaPhone project.

The project allows people to schedule a phone call anytime between now and Dec. 25 by listing their name, email and mobile phone number.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: Take this festive virtual tour of Santa’s house at the North Pole

Mashablerang the SantaPhone line and spoke with Santa's Helper #30012, an automated chat bot whose painfully cute vocals sounded sort of like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

He asked what we wanted for Christmas this year, and after a dial tone, we told him. It was a fun little experience that also happens to be totally free, as a Twilio rep confirmed to Mashable.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Each call is recorded and sent by email (although you can ask Twilio to delete it) so you can hold onto those few moments of holiday cheer for as long as you'd like. Twilio is donating $1 to Toys for Tots for every call, up to $10,000.

With a brand new way for children to give their annual gift list, the SantaPhone could be the 'Dear Santa' wish list of the future.

---

Featured Video For You

---

This is probably the most over the top gingerbread house ever

---

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})