It seems nutty as a holiday fruitcake, but in remote northernmost Finland, I wondered if a familiar, ho-ho-ho-ing big fellow might pilot my jetliner (and check who’s being nice in economy). Large overhead signs proclaimed I was in “Santa’s Official Home Airport,” where presumably passengers accrue frequent flyer miles by commercial planes or Prancer and Vixen. The runway even crosses the Arctic Circle in this elf-euphoric city of Rovaniemi that celebrates Christmas a dizzying 365 days a year. I believe in elves. Unless they lose my luggage.
With sleigh bells perpetually ringing, Rovaniemi thrives as the (trademarked) “Official Hometown of Santa Claus,” rebuilt into the shape of a reindeer’s antlered head after being leveled by German soldiers in World War II. During my merry visit, I schmoozed with the jolly red-suited showboat at his sprawling Santa Claus Village, which includes a bustling post office jammed with international fan letters, an Elf Academy for wanna-be trolls (“sauna elves” learn the secrets of Nordic spas), a frosty bar dispensing Laplandia-label vodka, and the new sub-zero Ice Disco for dancing grown-up girls and boys.
Making spirits bright, Santa Claus meets visitors 365 days a year in his “official hometown” of Rovaniemi, Finland. (Photo by Norma Meyer)
St. Nick, obviously, has quite a spread in this capital of Finnish Lapland. But yes, Virginia, there are other claim-to-fame Santa hometowns. A continent away, Father Christmas — or his whiskered doppelgängers — also roosts in various American communities, ranging from North Pole, Alaska (street lamp poles are candy cane-striped year-round and a local politician’s legal name is Santa Claus) to Santa Claus, Indiana (dating back to 1856 and recently debuting the Santa Claus Brewing Company).
Think you turn into a grinch when before Halloween, stores grossly overflow with pallets of peppermint bark and advent calendars for dogs? Bah humbug! These amusing, festive towns offer 12 months of unending yuletide joy and embrace that an iconic white-bearded gent is (allegedly) the guy next door:
Rovaniemi, Finland
Santa and an elf likely discuss toy orders in Santa’s office in Rovaniemi, Finland, arduously marketed as Santa’s hometown. (Photo by Norma Meyer)
In Santa’s official hometown, I slept snugly at the halls-decked-with-holly Hotel Santa Claus before dashing out to snowy Santa Claus Village, where the rosy-cheeked legend is always clocked in and guests can frolic with reindeer or eat them sautéed at restaurants. The village eminently got its start in 1950, when the first log cabin was erected for the stay of humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt had come to bolster the post-war reconstruction of Rovaniemi, almost completely burned to the ground by fleeing Germans in 1944.
Postal elves in fanciful attire and red pointy caps scurried around me at Santa’s Main Post Office, the only place on Earth where mail is stamped with an authentic Arctic Circle postmark. Gnomes sorted through some of the half-million letters sent annually to their boss; since tourism began booming in 1985, the postal depot has received 18 million missives from admirers in 199 countries, hundreds of pacifiers for baby reindeer, and countless presents for Santa including night goggles he smartly did not regift.
Later I went one-on-one with the benevolent holiday honcho in his stone-and-wood cottage “office.” You’d think he’d know the route by now, but there were world maps and globes all around him. He did divulge that Mrs. Claus cooks him porridge with cloudberry jam every morning, that he “hadn’t had a day off work in hundreds of years,” that Rudolph “takes care of technical things” like GPS and that when he writes LOL on Facebook, it means Lost in Lumi (the Finnish word for snow). And I’m on the good list. Tentatively. It was only early March.
North Pole, Alaska
In Christmas-always North Pole, Alaska, the merchandise-packed Santa Claus House has been sending postmarked Santa letters to children for 70 years. (Courtesy of Santa Claus House)
Far from Finland, this quirky 4.1-square mile town is also nowhere near the real North Pole (a mere 1,700 miles away), but it is “Where It’s Christmas Every Day!” Streets are adorned with candy canes and baubles year-round and sport names such as Blitzen Drive, Mistletoe Drive and Kris Kringle Drive; City Hall is located on Snowman Lane. The “world’s largest Santa,” a wide-eyed 900-pound, nearly 50-foot-tall fiberglass statue, rises outside Santa’s “official home,” also known as the 70-year-old gift emporium Santa Claus House on St. Nicholas Drive.
“The great thing about living in the North Pole is people can leave their Christmas decorations up all year long,” says Paul Brown, operations manager of Santa Claus House. “Although seeing the lights is a challenge when it’s 24 hours of daylight.”
Right now, Brown notes “it’s crazy and chaotic,” because his helpers are busy filling online orders for personalized North Pole-postmarked Santa letters and a very exclusive heirloom — for $9.95, you can obtain a “genuine deed to one square inch of North Pole property.”
The town of North Pole was christened in 1952 with the hope it might lure toy factories that would manufacture items “made in the North Pole.” That plan failed but the same year Con and Nellie Miller opened Santa Claus House, still family-run (Brown’s wife is the Millers’ granddaughter) and offering keepsakes such as Santa Claus House-logo baseballs and photo ops with the illustrious stocking stuffer.
If you’re seeing double in town, that’s because another Santa Claus lives among the 2,200 residents. This more unconventional Santa legally changed his name (he truly looks the role) and is a self-dubbed “democratic socialist,” Christian monk and medical marijuana supporter. He also served on the North Pole City Council and recently ran for a Congressional seat.
North Pole, New York
Santa Claus’ “house” is in his Santa’s Workshop village in North Pole, New York. Children bring him their wish lists. (Courtesy of North Pole, N.Y.)
Even farther from the geographic North Pole than North Pole, Alaska, this small hamlet sits in the forested Adirondack Mountains. Although bearing its own zip code, North Pole, N.Y., pretty much is just Santa’s Workshop, touted as one of the country’s first theme parks, debuting in 1949, and created by Arto Monaco, who later helped design Anaheim’s Disneyland.
At nostalgic Santa’s Workshop, youngsters can visit the superstar and his sidelines — candle store, bake shop, hat maker, reindeer blacksmith, U.S. post office — when not whirling on the spinning ornament and other kiddie rides. Plushy characters Chris Moose and Frosty the Snowman meander about, and giddy guests chat with Tannenbaum the Talking Christmas Tree (pssst: he’s a hidden employee).
“This is a step back in time,” says Matt Stanley, Santa Workshop’s general manager. Indeed, the vintage buildings are original.
Funnily, a highlight since 1949 is The North Pole, a six-foot-tall icicle that remains frozen even in warm July. “It’s Santa’s magic,” Stanley assures.
Santa Claus, Indiana
Santa Claus, Indiana, with its Christmassy businesses and street names, claims to be Santa’s home. After all, he’s even been spotted on the golf course. (Courtesy of Spencer County Visitors Bureau)
’Tis always the season in “America’s Christmas Hometown,” full of appropriately named businesses (Christmas Lake Golf Course) and streets (Jingle Bell Lane and Tinsel Circle, among many more). Here, the 2,500 inhabitants year-round smell fudge cooking from the fairytale crenelated tower of Santa’s Candy Castle, established in 1935. There’s the Santa Claus Museum, the Santa Claus Post Office, the 1880 Santa Claus Church, a 22-foot-tall concrete Santa statue that is nearly 90 years old, and Santa Claus Hardware should the premier toy deliverer need a wrench to fix his sleigh. At the Santa Claus Brewery, patrons can hoist glasses of St. Nicholas’ Stout and devour Vixen’s Vegan Burgers.
“You might run into Santa at the grocery store,” says Melissa Arnold, a longtime resident who promotes tourism in the town.
Santa’s Candy Castle, founded in 1935, was the first themed building in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. It was sponsored by the creators of Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars. (Courtesy of Spencer County Visitors Bureau)
The top draw is Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, a combo theme and water park featuring rollercoasters that would make high-flying Santa hold on tight. Nearby lodgings include Gingerbread House on Holiday Boulevard, Mistletoe Manor, and the Christmas Cabin at Lake Rudolph.
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Of course, “Santa Claus, Indiana” is surely eye-catching on a driver’s license (good luck with TSA agents). No one foresaw that though in the mid-19th century when, according to legend, locals were meeting on Christmas Eve to decide on a town name only to be interrupted by jangling bells and children outside shouting “Santa Claus!” Done deal. Then, in 1930, Robert Ripley of “Believe It or Not” published a syndicated article about Santa Claus’ post office, bringing national attention to the town of nonstop Noël.
More fa-la-la locales
You better not pout in Santa Claus, Georgia, “The City That Loves Children” (City Hall’s address is 25 December Drive); or in Christmas, Michigan, (the Las Vegas-style Christmas Casino on Candy Cane Lane promised to give “away a Buck Load of Doe”); or Christmas, Florida, (stroll down Comet Street or Cupid Avenue, but watch for rattlesnakes and ‘gators); or Rudolph, Wisconsin, “Home of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (street signs have pictures of the bright-nosed ungulate). However, Santa Claus, Arizona, a desert destination founded in 1937, eventually declined into a dilapidated ghost town of Christmases past.
Holy chestnuts, looks like Mr. Claus might moonlight in real estate.