The US town of Santa Claus, Indiana, has a strong theme around Christmas… so whatever time of year you visit, you can be sure there will be a smile on your face
It’s an annual grumble – that Christmas kicks off sooner and sooner.
In the US, Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday of November) does the hard work of keeping the festive season at bay, but here in the UK we can find ourselves wrapped up in Christmas lights from the start of the month.
That’s two months each year being bombarded with tinsel while Mariah Carey nips at your heels. But if you reckon that’s excessive, there’s one town where Christmas is marked all year round – the fittingly named Santa Claus, Indiana.
Here you can pop into Santa’s Candy Castle, Santa Claus Museum, Christmas Lake Golf Course and Santa’s Stables whenever you fancy. Whether it’s the chilly winter months or sweltering summer ones, beaming Santa statues beam down at you.
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The town’s name arrived before the prominent Christmas theme. Established in 1854 as Santa Fe, local officials hit a snag when they attempted to establish a post office. The Post Office Department rejected the application as there was already, rather confusingly, a Santa Fe Post Office in another Indiana town called Santa Fe.
How the residents settled on Santa Claus is a tale sprinkled with a generous helping of myth making. Nell Hedge, the former director of the Santa Claus Museum, explained how the entire town gathered on Christmas Eve to work out a new name.
She said: “The doors flew open on the building and a little girl heard the jingle of a Santa sleigh bell, and she said ‘Santa Claus’ and the town said ‘Santa Claus’.”
The naming of the area really gathered pace from there. You can stroll down Prancer Lane (or any other street named after Santa’s reindeer), past Christmas Lake to Holly Park.
In 1936, an entrepreneur hoping to capitalise on the town’s unique name established Santa’s Candy Castle. This sparked a festive competition and by the end of 1950, a host of other Christmas-themed businesses had emerged, including a theme park (now known as Holiday World) where you can meet Santa Claus every day of the year.
Unlike its namesake in Arizona, which was abandoned and left to decay in the desert, Santa Claus, Indiana, flourished. According to the theme park’s owner, most days see more visitors than there are residents in the town.
Today, the town boasts a plethora of restaurants, hotels and shops all themed around Christmas. But in a town so focused on the holidays, it’s the non-Christmas themed businesses that stand out.
The town’s name has led to its Christmassy credentials becoming self-fulfilling, with thousands of letters pouring into the Santa Claus Post Office each year addressed to Father Christmas himself.
Since 1914, the post office has assembled a team to respond to each and every letter sent to St Nick. Visitors arriving in December will discover a winter wonderland, akin to a large-scale Christmas fair.
But come January, when most people are packing away their decorations, the residents of Santa Claus, Indiana, are not. Whether they like it or not, they’re settling in for yet another year of celebrating Christmas.
