EXCLUSIVE | Welcome to your steamy new holiday obsession:

He sees you when you are asleep and knows when you are awake.

And Santaphiles—adults who love Santa Claus—have no choice.

“There’s always this old guy with a nice beard — and he wants to give you a gift?! What could be better than that?” Kassidie ​​Kosa, a 25-year-old content creator who first fell in love with Kris Kringle as a child while watching “The Santa Clause” movie starring Tim Allen, told The Washington Post. “Dad’s got a better body. I don’t care if they have abs. Give me Pudge.”

Or Santa could ring the bell in other ways.

“Some people may also be excited about it because they find Santa Claus to be a character that lends itself well to BDSM role play,” Dr. Justin Lehmiller, a senior fellow at the Kinsey Institute and host of the “Sex and Psychology Podcast,” told The Washington Post. “After all, Santa will tell you if you’re good or bad, and give you rewards and punishments.”

“Santa babies” like Khosa – who admits she has “total daddy issues” – are eager to celebrate and honor their favorite man during his signature time of the year.

“For some reason, the older I get, the more I want to grow up,” Kosar said. “I sound crazy, but there’s something really irresistible about gray hair, pudgy hair, and a ‘take charge’ attitude.”

Khosa isn’t the only one enthusiastic about the holiday star.

Melissa Rosen, a 47-year-old business consultant and CEO of a matchmaking company called Quality Select, discovered she was attracted to Kris Kringle when she was 16, when she saw an off-duty Santa relaxing in a mall alley, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God — Santa Claus is off duty,’” Rosen told The Washington Post. “I was just obsessed with, ‘What does Santa Claus do in his off hours?'” And so the obsession began. “

Rosen noted that she personally prefers a younger version of Santa Claus – one with a beard, big hands and a stocky build (but not also Big belly). She also used to go with friends every Christmas to “sit on Santa’s lap,” and even though she’s a single mother now, she keeps things even more PG.

“When Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I whispered in his ear, ‘You,'” Rosen recalled of this year’s visit. “We had a lot of laughs.”

Rosen also said that when she and her brother asked clients what they were looking for in a partner in their matchmaking business, they found that most were “just describing Santa Claus.”

“I think he represents a lot of things that men and women want in relationships, like generosity,” said Rosen, who actively seeks to date men who look like jolly Saint Nick. “The same goes for happiness, and there’s the father-figure aspect. There’s also (the aspect) of judging people just by whether they’re naughty or nice.”

Whether the attraction is innocence, heart-warming or pure hedonism, it’s not always lost on Santa’s designated stand-in.

Paul Mason is a 61-year-old former New York model now known as “Fashion Santa.” He’s been promoting himself as a fashionable version of the holiday icon since 2014, when he first noticed his white beard was taking on a Kringle-like appearance.

While he doesn’t do adult entertainment, he’s happy that adult women enjoy his Santa-like vibe.

“It feels a little sophisticated and maybe a little sexy,” Mason told The Washington Post. “It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, a little cheeky. I think people like the idea… I don’t think it’s offensive in any way, so why not?”

Kinsey’s Lehmiller said people’s unanimous attraction to Santa Claus (or perhaps “Dad” Christmas) is a quirk that has yet to be statistically quantified, noting that to date there hasn’t been enough research on Santafilia to determine exactly how many people harbor this holiday obsession.

“From a research perspective, this is not a topic that we know a lot about, so the true prevalence of Santa Claus quirks is unknown,” Lehmiller told The Washington Post. “However, porn sites report that searches for Santa-themed porn do spike during the holidays, so we do know that some people get turned on by it.”

In fact, searches for “Santa Claus” on Pornhub have increased 203% in the past 30 days, according to company representatives. Pornhub has reported in the past that the term “naughty Santa’s helpers” has seen considerable growth during the Christmas season, with the more vulgar “Christmas f–k” also seeing a seasonal surge.

Amanda DiChiara, a 35-year-old hairstylist in New Jersey, was first attracted to Santa when she was about 12 years old. She acknowledged that some people may find her appeal “weird,” but stressed that what appeals to her most is the way Santa captures the “spirit of Christmas.”

“I think (he) makes the holidays more festive, almost spiritual — that’s the real appeal,” DiChiara told The Washington Post.

“Besides, having that big, fat man take care of you…I don’t know what else to say.”