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Dec. 6 2009 - 8:01 pm | 76 views | 0 recommendations | 4 comments

Yes, Virginia, there is a town called Santa Claus, where it’s Christmas year-round

Santa Claus in Langley, Washington. Sue Frause photo.

Santa Claus in Langley, Washington. Sue Frause photo.

Santa Claus, Indiana is home to the world’s only post office with the Santa Claus name. It also has the world’s first theme park, Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari (originally called Santa Claus Land), which opened in 1946.

No surprise that many of the businesses in this community of 2,200 people have Christmas themed names: Santa’s Lodge, Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort, Christmas Lake Golf Course, Kringle Place and Holiday Foods.

The streets even have holiday names: Christmas Boulevard, Candy Cane Lane and Mistletoe Drive. And there are no shortage of Santa Claus statues: eight larger than life Santas are positioned at various locations in the town.

Santa Claus, Indiana was formed in the 1840s by a group of German immigrants. Originally called Santa Fe (pronounced fee), when the community applied to have a post office, they discovered there was already a Santa Fe, Indiana. Legend has it that at a town meeting in a little log church on Christmas Eve in 1852, the residents were discussing what to name their town when a gust of winter wind blew the doors to the church open. Sleigh bells could be heard in the distance and the children started exclaiming it must be Santa Claus! The residents decided the town should indeed be named Santa Claus.


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    You can mail letters to Santa at P.O. Box 1, Santa Claus, Indiana 47579 and Santa will send a letter back to everyone! Or get your Christmas cards stamped with the 2009 Holiday Postmark by mailing them to the Post Master at P.O. Box 45, Santa Claus, Indiana, 47579

  2. collapse expand

    Hats up! really informative one.
    ” only post office with the Santa Claus name ”
    Valuable information.Thanks.
    Happy Christmas & Happy New Year
    You may Like This Knol
    http://knol.google.com/k/christmas#

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