No matter how close they are, however, she refuses to reveal his identity.

'I do know his real name, but I didn't want to say anything on TV because I still want kids to think he's the real Santa,' she said. 'I still write Santa letters and my friends always make fun of me. He knows a lot about me. We've had this connection and as I grew up he's kind of followed my life.'

And she hopes the tradition will be able to continue long enough to reach another generation.

'It'll be kind of cool if he's still alive and I had kids and we all started going together,' she said.

At 18 she returned to the traditional pose