MEXICO – He’s a plaster figurine, about 6 by 8 inches, with a slot in the back for coins.

He’s plump, and his once bright red coat has faded a bit. The lime green chair he’s napping in has seen brighter days, too.

And he’s a world traveler.

Lucien Arsenault has owned the snoozin’ Santa for almost 50 years. He picked it up somewhere in Maine many years ago after he returned from World War II and opened a pawn shop in Rumford. For some reason, the totally contented look on the sleeping Santa’s face appealed to Arsenault.

“He’s a cute little thing,” said Arsenault. “I always put him on my coffee table at Christmas.”

Soon, the novelty will find its way to another coffee table, this time down on the coast, in the town of Newcastle, in the home of Arsenault’s niece, Alita.

The Santa hasn’t always graced Arsenault’s table.

For many years, it brought smiles to children and adults in Fiji, a cluster of islands in the South Pacific halfway around the world, near Australia.

Arenault had sent it to his sister, Sister Mary Filibert, who was born Eva Arsenault. She worked with a leper colony for many years on one of the tiny islands. Lucien Arsenault served part of the war in Fiji, but could never visit his sister because of her leper colony work.

While she was there, said Arsenault, Sister Mary became friends with a young girl named Alita. That girl followed her wherever she went and became quite a tag-a-long.

When Sister Mary retired to a nun’s home in Waltham, Mass., the Santa stayed with her for a few years, then it was returned to Arsenault in the early 1970s.

Ever since then, Arsenault and until recently, his wife, Vera, placed the Santa on the coffee table in their bright, sun-filled living room during the Christmas season.

Arsenault often fell asleep, no doubt seduced by the angelic, kindly smile expressed on Santa’s face.

“I just look at him and I fall asleep,” he said.

But now, his niece, Alita Giambattista, named after his sister’s Fiji friend, will get him.

“She’s all excited about it,” said Arsenault. “She knows all about the places the Santa has been.”

Arsenault will miss him next Christmas, he said. He’s been on that coffee table for almost 30 years.

“I know she’ll take good care of him,” he said.