"the new U.S. 231), is known as Christmas Boulevard. This is in keeping with the Christmas theme of the town. It is also known as the William A. Koch Memorial Highway, named for the local developer who pushed much of the town's development, and assisted the creation of nearby Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. There have been several notable residents and former residents of Santa Claus, Indiana. Santa Claus, Indiana Santa Claus is a town in Spencer County, Indiana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. Located in Carter, Clay and Harrison Townships, it sits between Interstate 64 and"
"town meetings were held, during which the name ""Santa Claus"" was selected. The town has the world's only post office to bear the name of Santa Claus. Because of this popular name, the post office receives thousands of letters to Santa from all over the world each year. A group of volunteers known as Santa's Elves ensures each child receives a reply from Santa Claus; this tradition has been in existence since at least 1914. Every year, the post office also creates a special Christmas hand-cancellation pictorial postmark for use during December, which also attracts mail from all over the"
"and souvenir. Santa Claus' Main Post Office Santa Claus' Main Post Office is a tourist destination in Santa Claus Village in the Arctic Circle, about 8 kilometres north of Rovaniemi. It is the only official Santa Claus´ Post Office and part of the Finnish postal services. It is open all year and over 100 international media and about half a million visitors from around the world are welcomed by Christmas-dressed postal elves. In 1985, Santa Claus’ Main Post Office received over 17 million letters. In 2014 Santa Claus received most letters from China, Italy and Poland. In Santa Claus' Main"
"to the list. Children from Great Britain, Poland and Japan are the busiest writers. The Finnish Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi, however the Santa Claus Main Post Office is situated in Rovaniemi precisely at the Arctic circle. His address is: Santa Claus' Main Post Office, Santa Claus Village, FIN-96930 Arctic Circle. The post office welcomes 300,000 visitors a year, with 70,000 visitors in December alone. Children can also receive a letter from Santa through a variety of private agencies and organizations, and on occasion public and private cooperative ventures. An example of a public and private cooperative venture is the"
"Santa Claus' Main Post Office Santa Claus' Main Post Office is a tourist destination in Santa Claus Village in the Arctic Circle, about 8 kilometres north of Rovaniemi. It is the only official Santa Claus´ Post Office and part of the Finnish postal services. It is open all year and over 100 international media and about half a million visitors from around the world are welcomed by Christmas-dressed postal elves. In 1985, Santa Claus’ Main Post Office received over 17 million letters. In 2014 Santa Claus received most letters from China, Italy and Poland. In Santa Claus' Main Post Office"
"Indiana and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Each year, tens of thousands of Christmas cards and letters are sent to the USPS Noel Post Office during the holiday season to be stamped with a postmark reading, """"Noel, Mo. - 'The Christmas City in the Ozark Vacation Land.'"""" This practice became popular by the late 1940s when Kate Smith, a radio and television singer, began telling the ""Noel Story"" during her broadcasts. Noel is home to a Tyson Foods plant, where chicken is processed for human consumption. By 2010, between 400 and 500 Somali refugees, and 60 and 70 Sudanese refugees, out of 1,800"
"town's early days. The Santa Claus House is known for the world's largest fiberglass statue of Santa Claus outside. A small group of domesticated Reindeer are just outside. Prior to Christmas each year, the USPS post office in North Pole receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa Claus, and thousands more from people wanting the town's postmark on their Christmas greeting cards to their families. It advertises the ZIP code 99705 as the ZIP code of Santa. A community program also responds to letters addressed to 1 Santa Claus Lane. Christmas-themed streets in North Pole include Santa Claus Lane,"
"called ""Operation Santa"" to ensure that letters to Santa are adopted by charitable organizations, major corporations, local businesses and individuals in order to make children's holiday dreams come true from coast to coast. Those seeking a North Pole holiday postmark through the USPS, are told to send their letter from Santa or a holiday greeting card by 10 December to: North Pole Holiday Postmark, Postmaster, 4141 Postmark Dr, Anchorage, AK 99530-9998. In 2006, according to the UPU's 2007 study and survey of national postal operations, France's Postal Service received the most letters for Santa Claus or ""Père Noël"" with 1,220,000"
"also a city named North Pole in Alaska where a tourist attraction known as the ""Santa Claus House"" has been established. The United States Postal Service uses the city's ZIP code of 99705 as their advertised postal code for Santa Claus. A Wendy's in North Pole, AK has also claimed to have a ""sleigh fly through"". Each Nordic country claims Santa's residence to be within their territory. Norway claims he lives in Drøbak. In Denmark, he is said to live in Greenland (near Uummannaq). In Sweden, the town of Mora has a theme park named Tomteland. The national postal terminal"
"its remailing service opportunities and, as of 2005, all U.S. mail addressed to Santa Claus is sent to Santa Claus, Indiana. In 2006, Santa Claus, Arizona, was noted as being abandoned and likely to become another lost American highway icon. In that same year, videographer Matt McCormick retraced and filmed the steps of his family road trip through Santa Claus in 1956. The resulting three-minute movie, ""Fifty Years Later"" (2006), included clips of Santa Claus in 1956 and comparison clips from the town in 2006. Presented at the 2007 Northwest Film and Video Festival, the film reveals the significant changes"
"Postal Service, they should send their letter from Santa or a holiday greeting card by December 10 to: North Pole Holiday Postmark, Postmaster, 4141 Postmark Dr, Anchorage, AK 99530-9998. Over 25 years, the Salvation Army in cooperation with the Alaska Air National Guard use C-130 Hercules to distribute every year gifts to children living in remote places in Alaska before Christmas. Operation Santa Claus Operation Santa Claus is a yearly initiative undertaken by the United States Postal Service. It was started in 1912 when United States Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to start responding to needy children, with"
"side of town. Santa Claus is the home to numerous themed attractions including: Santa's Candy Castle, Santa Claus Museum, Holiday World & Splashin' Safari, Frosty's Fun Center, Christmas Lake Golf Course, and Santa's Stables. It is also home to Santa's Lodge and Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort. The community of Santa Claus was designed in 1849. The story of how it received the name of Santa Claus has roots both in fact and legend. In January 1856 the town applied for a post office to be installed. They submitted their application under the name of Santa Fe. The application"
"for the 2010 Census. Christmas, Florida Christmas is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,146 at the 2010 census. Christmas is home to the world's largest alligator-shaped building, measuring at just over ; to Fort Christmas Historical Park, a recreation of the Second Seminole War Fort Christmas; and to Fort Christmas Folk School, a nonprofit school dedicated to teaching folk arts. Every year, Christmas sends a large amount of mail from its post office from people who mail letters from the"
"also hold the distinction of being the only brother pair who both served as president of a state senate in the United States. Santa Claus House is known for the world's largest Santa statue and its ""Letters from Santa"". Santa Claus House The Santa Claus House is a Christmas-themed retail store in North Pole, Alaska. It was founded as a trading post alongside the Richardson Highway in 1952 by Con and Nellie Miller, shortly after North Pole itself was founded by real estate developer Everett Dahl. The Santa Claus House served as North Pole's post office from its inception through"
"Christmas, Florida Christmas is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,146 at the 2010 census. Christmas is home to the world's largest alligator-shaped building, measuring at just over ; to Fort Christmas Historical Park, a recreation of the Second Seminole War Fort Christmas; and to Fort Christmas Folk School, a nonprofit school dedicated to teaching folk arts. Every year, Christmas sends a large amount of mail from its post office from people who mail letters from the town so they can"
"Santa Claus, Arizona Santa Claus (also known as Santa Claus Acres) is a populated place in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Originating in 1937, Santa Claus lies approximately northwest of Kingman, Arizona, along U.S. Route 93 between mile markers 57 and 58, immediately north of Hermit Drive and just south of both Grasshopper Junction, Arizona, and the Junk Art of Chloride, a group of metal statues in Chloride, Arizona, that include a flamingo made out of a motorcycle gas tank. Characterized in 1988 as ""a little roadside place on the west shoulder of U.S. Route 93,"" Santa Claus receives traffic"
"of jet fuel for Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Tanker car traffic on the Alaska Railroad, entering and leaving the refinery, frequently bisects the city. While the real North Pole has no terra firma many travelers discovered this town as an ideal way to finally visit the home of Santa Claus. That revelation made this small town in Alaska a must visit during the holidays causing the town to create more and more Santa Claus themed attractions. Its biggest attraction is a gift shop named Santa Claus House, the modern-day incarnation of a trading post (gift shop) established in the"
"A Town Without Christmas A Town Without Christmas is a made-for-TV movie, broadcast on CBS on 16 December 2001. The film was the first of a trilogy with subsequent sequels, ""Finding John Christmas"" (2003) and ""When Angels Come to Town"" (2004) also being aired on CBS. Peter Falk returned to play the role of the angel Max for both sequels. Chris, a young boy in the Pacific Northwest town of Seacliff, Washington, goes missing. Before he disappears, he writes a letter to Santa Claus, wishing that he would no longer exist in order to not trouble his divorcing parents. Concerned"
"Operation Santa Claus Operation Santa Claus is a yearly initiative undertaken by the United States Postal Service. It was started in 1912 when United States Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to start responding to needy children, with the first one starting at the James Farley Post Office. For those seeking the Santa Claus holiday postmark through the United States Postal Service, they should send their letter from Santa or a holiday greeting card by December 10 to: Santa Claus, PO Box 202, Santa Claus, IN 47579. For those seeking the North Pole holiday postmark through the United States"
"began promoting the Santa Claus postmark. The name was changed back to ""Santa Claus"" on February 17, 1928. It was then that the Post Office Department decided there would never be another Santa Claus Post Office in the United States, due to the influx of holiday mail and the staffing and logistical problems this caused. The growing volume of holiday mail became so substantial that it caught the attention of Robert Ripley in 1929, who featured the town's post office in his nationally syndicated ""Ripley's Believe It or Not!"" cartoon strip. The town's name caught the attention of Vincennes, Indiana"
"that stretch back to the 17th century. The Capital District has been pivotal in the history of Santa Claus in the United States including the first written reference to Santa (Sinterclaas) in 1675 and the first publishing of ""'Twas the Night before Christmas"" in 1823. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy media market, the 56th largest in the United States, includes all of the 11 counties of the Capital District, along with Hamilton County, New York, as well as Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and Bennington County, Vermont. In total, there are 16 AM/MW stations, 30 full-power FM stations, 14 low-power FM translators, 8 full power"
"opportunity for expatriate and local children and parents to receive postmarked mail and greeting cards from Santa during December in the Finnish Embassy in Beijing, People's Republic of China, Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, and the People's Republic of China Postal System's Beijing International Post Office. Parents can order a personalized ""Santa letter"" to be sent to their child, often with a North Pole postmark. The ""Santa Letter"" market generally relies on the internet as a medium for ordering such letters rather than retail stores. A number of websites created by various organizations track Santa Claus each year. Some,"
"was returned to them with the message, ""Choose some name other than Santa Fe."" The process of settling upon the name of Santa Claus has been lost to legend. There are many different versions of the story and there were other choices as well that the town did not settle upon. What is known is that in 1856, the name of Santa Claus was accepted by the Post Office Department. On June 25, 1895, the post office name was changed to the one word ""Santaclaus"". The town's unique name went largely unnoticed until the late 1920s, when Postmaster James Martin"
"all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court. National news media covered the ongoing story of ""Too Many Santas."" Over the years both entrepreneurs' projects became vacant and neglected. Santa Claus Museum and Village Santa Claus Museum & Village is an attraction being developed near the community of Santa Claus, Indiana. In 2005, a local development company purchased Santa's Candy Castle and other buildings that comprised Santa Claus Town and announced plans to restore and re-open them to the public. Santa's Candy Castle was the first building of the original Santa Claus Town to be re-opened to the public, when"
"Santa magically receives them. In 2010, the Brazilian National Post Service, ""Correios"" formed partnerships with public schools and social institutions to encourage children to write letters and make use of postcodes and stamps. In 2009, the Brazilian National Post Service, ""Correios"" answered almost two million children's letters, and spread some seasonal cheer by donating 414,000 Christmas gifts to some of Brazil's neediest citizens. Through the years, the Finnish Santa Claus (Joulupukki or ""Yule Goat"") has received over eight million letters. He receives over 600,000 letters every year from over 198 different countries with Togo being the most recent country added"
"come from the short-ordered grill and the soft-drinks cooler. On a stool behind the countertop cash register, a haggard, fiftyish man looked up from his circle-the-word puzzle and asked if we needed anything."" Prior to 1990, the U.S. Postal Service announced the release of its annual Christmas stamps in Santa Claus due to the town's holiday ring. In the early 1990s, the restaurant offered Dasher and Dancer omelette and Santa Claus burgers and oil portraits of John Wayne could be purchased from the shops. However, the last gift shops and child amusements went out of business in 1995. In 2003,"
"messages from Santa Claus. If called on Christmas Eve, Santa will say what state he is traveling over, and what exactly he is doing. In 2009 they added a service that allows you to receive messages a week early from Santa explaining what he is doing to prepare for Christmas. At the onset of service, as a way to gain more users, they offered a free long distance call feature. Callers would call Tellme and were given 1 free minute of long distance call time to their desired phone number. That service was later stopped while other services persisted. Voice"
"Rendered with a pop-soul feel, the Jackson 5's versions of ""I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"" and ""Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"" remain frequent radio requests during the holiday season. The album spent all four weeks at the number one position on Billboard magazine's special Christmas Albums chart that the magazine published in December 1970, making it the best-selling holiday album of that year. It has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide.[2] In 2003, Universal Motown re-released the album with ""Little Christmas Tree"" (from A Motown Christmas). In 2009, this configuration was released as Ultimate Christmas Collection with Christmas"
"office were moved to the site next to the large Santa Claus statue. Deutsch Evangelische St. Paul’s Kirche was relocated to the park in 2012. It was built in 1880. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town of Santa Claus was designed in 1849. On May 21, 1856, the name of Santa Claus was accepted by the United States Post Office Department, and the first post office was opened with John Specht as its first postmaster. On June 25, 1895, the post office name was changed to the one word Santaclaus. The town's unique name"
"by which the character is identified, but it also does not appear in many non-English-speaking countries. The traditional Christmas poem ""A Visit from St. Nicholas"" relates that Santa has: Santa Claus's home traditionally includes a residence and a workshop where he creates—often with the aid of elves or other supernatural beings—the gifts he delivers to good children at Christmas. Some stories and legends include a village, inhabited by his helpers, surrounding his home and shop. In North American tradition (in the United States and Canada), Santa lives on the North Pole, which according to Canada Post lies within Canadian jurisdiction"
"world. The pictorial postmark is chosen each year from submissions from art students at nearby Heritage Hills and South Spencer High Schools. Santa Claus has grown substantially since the 1990 census, which recorded 927 residents. A majority of Santa Claus residents live within the gated community of Christmas Lake Village, which was developed in the late 1960s by Bill Koch. It consists of developed around three lakes: Christmas Lake, Lake Holly, and Lake Noel. The street names in Christmas Lake Village are all named after the Christmas season. Many residents also live in Holiday Village, a subdivision on the north"
"upturned palms and outstretched wings. The word ""hope"" appears on the angel's right wing. When reports surfaced that grieving parents were seeking the statue, Evans commissioned the construction of an angel statue matching the description in ""The Christmas Box"". In 1994, it was placed in Salt Lake City, Utah on land donated by the city. As of June 2014, over 120 Christmas Box Angels have been erected, mostly in the United States. The Christmas Box The Christmas Box () is an American novel written by Richard Paul Evans and self-published in 1993. A Christmas story purportedly written for his children,"
"tradition in Allegany County, Maryland, can be found in ""Brown's Miscellaneous Writings"", a collection of essays by Jacob Brown (born 1824). Writing of a period around 1830, Brown says, ""we did not hear of"" Santa Claus. Instead, the tradition called for a visit by a different character altogether: The Belsnickel character originated in the Palatinate. When people immigrated to Pennsylvania, they brought their German traditions with them. Belsnickel was known in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Amongst the Pennsylvania Germans, Belsnickel is the character who visits homes prior to Christmas to check up on the behavior of the children. The"