By ABC-7's Celina Avila

Black Friday, the official start to the holiday shopping season, is less than a week away, but the threat of the H1N1 flu has Santa's helpers at one local mall taking extra precautions.

Officials at Bassett Place in El Paso say they're being proactive, keeping more alcohol-based hand sanitizer around their Santa station to help stop the spread of viruses.

In addition, different areas around the mall, such as the children's play area, are being washed more often.

Santa will also be changing his gloves every hour. Because hanging out with kids all day could put Santa at higher risk, he has already received his swine flu vaccine, managers say.

However, mall managers say they don't want a child's experience to change while visiting Santa.

"He'll still be jolly and interactive the kids, so there won't be anything noticeably different in an experience of seeing Santa Claus," says Bassett Place's Marguerite Byers.

Managers say Santa "wakes up" Saturday, November 21 at noon, but of course, if your kid is sneezing or has flu-like symptoms, you'll still want to keep him or her away from jolly ol' St. Nick.