Written by Lindsey Beckley
Produced by Jill Weiss Simins
Transcript for Santa Claus, Indiana: “Where it’s Christmas Every Day”
Jump to Show Notes
(Wind, footsteps in snow, bell, door closing)
Clark playing Santa Claus: Ho, Ho, Ho! It’s time to read some letters of years past.
Dear Old Santa, I thought I’d write and tell you what I want for Christmas, but as you are so busy I don’t know whether I will get them or not. I want a pair of high top shoes and candy and nuts. Oh, well, I ain’t particular, but I got a sister two years old what wants a Teddy bear or doll. Good-by, Santa Claus.
Clarence Flemming, Whiting, 6 years old, 1910
Well, he certainly got those shoes and that candy and his sister certainly got that Teddy Bear.
Here’s another letter here.
Dear Old Santa, I am a good little boy six years old. I bet you are, young man! I go to school every day. Please bring me a watch and an Eversharp pencil for Christmas, candy nuts and oranges. And don’t forget my brothers and sisters, and papa and mama. Bye Bye,
Junior Maple, Rushville, 6 years old, 1922
Oh, I made sure he got that Eversharp pencil. Santa made sure of that. Absolutely! Ho, Ho, Ho!
Dear Santa, Please bring me a doll with doll clothes, games, card, finger painting set and molding set. I would like some books and candy, nuts and orange. Remember the poor little children who have no daddy or mother. Thank you,
Judy Ann Wright, Evansville, 8 years old, 1948
Ho, Ho, Ho! Oh, Judy, I’m so glad you took time to think of the poor little ones with no mommy or daddy. I make sure to take care of then as well on Christmas. Every child is taken care of by Old Saint Nick! Ho, Ho, Ho!
Beckley: “Nestled in the wooded hills of southern Indiana, lies a land of fantasy…where it’s Christmas every day.”
That place is Santa Claus, Indiana. On this episode, we’ll be taking a tour of the oddly named Indiana town that embraces the holiday spirit all year round.
I’m Lindsey Beckley and this is Talking Hoosier History.
A note here at the top of the show: we’ll be discussing Christmas spoilers having to do with a certain jolly old man in this episode. If you listen with small children, you might want to skip this episode or listen when you’re by yourself!
Indiana has its fair share of uniquely named towns – Gnaw Bone, Popcorn, Pinhook, Needmore, and Pumpkin Center to name a few. But perhaps the most well-known idiosyncratic place name is Santa Claus in Spencer County, Indiana.
So, how did we get this intriguing sobriquet? Before we get there, we should cover some of the early history of the area. The Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware tribes first stewarded the land that later became Spencer County. At the turn of the 19th century, many of these tribes joined Tecumseh’s confederation to oppose white encroachment. However, U.S. policy and the treaties of Fort Wayne and Vincennes in 1803 and 1804 opened the land to white settlement. Crossing over from Kentucky, white settlers established permanent homes by 1810 in the Indiana territory near Rockport on the Ohio River. They soon spread into the area we know today as Santa Claus. By the mid-nineteenth century when settlers decided to incorporate their new town, they did not originally intent to pay such homage to the Christmas holiday.
As with many place names, the origin of the name Santa Claus is mostly the stuff of legend. We do know that the town, made up primarily of German immigrants, was platted as Santa Fe in 1846, but when time came to establish a post office, it was discovered that there was already a Santa Fe in Indiana, and a new name needed to be decided upon.
The letter bearing the disappointing news that Santa Fe could no longer be Santa Fe arrived on Christmas Eve. The villagers travelled through heavy snow to the local church, where they began discussing alternative names. They talked, and they discussed, and they argued, but could find nothing that suited them. Just as hope of finding the perfect name was slipping away, the door swung open, and there stood a man dressed in a Santa suit. This seemed like a sign if there ever was one, and so the townsfolk decided that from then on, their town would be known as “Santa Claus.”
[Record Scratch]
Clark: Wait, wait, wait. I heard this differently – I heard that the villagers were gathered, singing carols on Christmas Eve when the letter came informing them that they would need to choose a different name for the town. In the middle of their discussion, a bright white light flooded the surrounding hills. A little boy ran in shouting that the Christmas star was falling from the sky. As everyone rushed to see for themselves, a flaming mass shot down from the heavens and crashed into a distant valley. Taking this as a good omen, those gathered agreed that the name Santa Claus was more than fitting.
[Record scratch]
Beckley: Well, either way it happened, the townsfolk eventually decided on Santa Claus as a replacement name, and the Santa Claus post office was officially established on May 21, 1856.
For years, however, the strangely named town was just that – a town with a strange name. It wasn’t until Santa Claus Postmaster James Martin began answering letters written to Saint Nick in the early 20th century that the town began truly embracing its merry moniker. It’s unclear when or why letters to the man at the North Pole began arriving at the Santa Claus, Indiana post office, but in 1914 Martin began writing back, and the tradition only grew from there.
Mail clerks around the country began rerouting letters simply addressed “Santa Claus” to the Indiana town for Martin to handle. Parents began writing notes with enclosed letters or packages to be stamped with the Santa Claus postmark and sent back, making the letters and gifts under the tree on Christmas morning that much more authentic.
By 1928, Martin and his clerks were, not unlike Santa and his elves, handling thousands of letters every holiday season and were garnering enough attention to catch the eye of Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Before Ripley’s was an after school tv show and before it was a coffee table book you bought at the annual Scholastic Book Fair at your elementary school, it was a syndicated newspaper panel that shared interesting tidbits and oddities from around the world. And on January 7, 1930, the oddity in question was none other than Santa Claus, Indiana.
Clark: There is a Santa Claus: Santa Claus is a little village in IND (50 people). James Martin – the Postmaster, acts as ‘Santa,’ and mailed out 100,000 letters.
Beckley: It was a brief mention, but it was enough. The next Christmas, Martin reported that the number of parcels and letters coming through his post office had grown exponentially, adding:
Clark: I guess my name ought to be Santa Claus, because I have to pay out of my own pocket for handling all this mail. I’ve hired six clerks to help out and I recon it’s going to cost $200. But it advertises the town and besides lots of folks from all around come out to the store to see us sending out the mail.
Beckley: With great fame comes great scrutiny, or at least it did in this case. By 1931, the Associated Press reported that officials in Washington were considering changing the name of the town as the stress put on the postal system during the holiday season was becoming too much to handle. Christmas lovers across the country bemoaned the potential loss, but none so loudly as the citizens of Santa Claus, who contacted their Congressmen, Senator James Watson and Representative John Boehne.
Watson and Boehne got to work for their constituents. Representative Boehne notified the USPS that the entire Indiana delegation would oppose the name change if it were to go forward. Senator Watson took a more direct route and went straight to Postmaster General Walter Brown to assure him that
Clark: “The people won’t want it changed. “ “The name must not be changed nor the office abolished.”
Beckley: In the end, of course, the citizens were able to preserve their beloved town’s name, and the tradition continued to grow.
Entrepreneurs, hoping to cash in on the Christmas spirit, began to take notice of the small town. In 1935, Vincennes speculator Milt Harris founded the business called Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Incorporated. Harris erected Santa’s Candy Castle, the first tourist attraction in town. Built to look like a fairy castle and filled with candy from project sponsor Curtiss Candy Company, the Candy Castle was the centerpiece of what Harris dubbed Santa Claus Town, a little holiday village of sorts made up of his business ventures. The castle would eventually be joined by Santa’s Workshop and a toy village.
Across town, a different, similarly named business, Santa Claus, Incorporated, brainchild of Chicago businessman Carl Barrett, built another Yuletide monument, a 22-ft. tall statue of Santa Claus purportedly made of solid granite. This colossal Kris Kringle was the start of a second Christmas themed landmark, this one called Santa Claus Park. All of this in a town of fewer than 100 people.
Both attractions were dedicated during the Christmas season of 1935, but all the holiday spirit in the world wasn’t enough to keep the peace between Harris and Barrett.
The contentions between the two businessmen can be summed up, in short, as a “this town isn’t big enough for the two of us” kind of thing. Now, get ready, because there is going to be a whole lot of Santa Clauses being thrown around here. I’ll try to make it as clear as possible.
By 1935, the town of Santa Claus, Indiana was home to two organizations – Santa Claus, Incorporated, owned by Carl Barrett, and Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Incorporated, owned by Milt Harris. Barrett and Santa Claus, Incorporated were developing Santa Claus Park, which featured the 22-ft. Santa Claus statue. Harris and Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Incorporated were developing Santa Claus Town, featuring Santa’s Candy Castle. Barrett (Santa Claus, Incorporated) filed suit against Harris (Santa Claus of Santa Claus, Incorporated) alleging that the latter had no right to use a name so similar to its own. Meanwhile, Harris filed suit against Barrett because Barrett had bought and was building Santa Claus Park on land that had been leased to Harris by the previous owner.
Whew, I wasn’t kidding about the number of Santa Clauses in these cases.
A judge put an injunction on Santa Claus Park, meaning Barret could not move forward with development. Eventually, this tongue twister of a case went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court, which ruled in 1940 that both companies could keep using their names and overturned the injunction, meaning that the plans for Santa Claus Park could move forward, regardless of Harris’s lease.
However, the protracted legal battle, combined with wartime rationing, which impacted tourism due to gasoline and tire shortages, took a toll on both attractions. By 1943, cracks ran through the base of the giant Santa Statue and the Candy Castle had closed its doors.
But with the end of the war came new opportunities. In 1946, retired Evansville industrialist and father of nine Louis Koch opened Santa Claus Land after being disappointed that the town had little to offer visiting children hoping to catch a glimpse of the jolly man in the red suit. This theme park, reportedly the first amusement park in the world with a specific theme, included a toy shop, toy displays, a restaurant, themed rides and, of course, Santa Claus.
This was no run of the mill Santa Claus, though. This was Jim Yellig. Yellig would become, according to the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame, “one of the most beloved and legendary Santas of all time.” Yellig had donned the red and white suit at the Candy Castle and volunteered to answer letters to Santa for years before becoming the resident Santa at the new park, a position which he held for 38 years. During his tenure as the jolly old elf, Yellig heard the Christmas wishes of over one million children.
Throughout “Santa Jim’s” tenure, Santa Claus Land continued to grow, thanks in large part to Louis Koch’s son Bill, who took over the operation of the park soon after its founding. By 1957, the park offered a “miniature circus,” a wax museum, Santa’s Deer Farm, and an outdoor amphitheater. Live entertainment shows, such as a water ski show, started and in the early 1970s rides such as Dasher’s Seahorses, Comet’s Rockets, Blitzen’s Airplanes, and Prancer’s Merry-Go-Round were added. And in 1984, the Koch family expanded from a strictly Christmas-themed park to include Halloween and Fourth of July sections and changed its name to Holiday World. Still in operation today as Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, the theme park, which features what are considered some of the best wooden roller coasters in the world, welcomes over 1 million people per year.
Today, the town of Santa Claus is more Christmas-y than ever. Many of its 2,400 residents live in Christmas Lake Village or Holiday Village on streets with names like Poinsettia Drive, Candy Cane Lane, and Evergreen Plaza. The Candy Castle was renovated and reopened in 2006 and is known for its wide selection of cocoas and its Frozen Hot Chocolate. Carl Barrett’s 22-ft. Santa Statue was restored by Holiday World in 2011 and now welcomes tourists from all over the world. Visitors to Holiday World can stay at Lake Rudolph Campground and RV Park or Santa’s Lodge. Every Christmas season, the small town comes alive with festivals, parades, and even Christmas fireworks. And, of course, dedicated volunteers still answer children’s letters to Santa, even if they sound a little different than they used to.
Clark as Santa: Dear Santa,
Please give me a new mask. Would you give my sisters and brother gifts please? How is Mrs. Claus and Rudolph? How are the elves? I hope you have a good Christmas.
Love, Lilly
Well, Mrs. Clause is just fine. So is Roudolph. And the elves are working tirelessly to make sure that presents make it to you on time, Lilly, and to all the little boys and girls in the world.
Dear Santa,
I’d like if you would get me a Hot Wheels Super Ultimate Garage. I have been good. How are things going at the North Pole? I will leave carrots for the reindeer and cookies for you. Have a safe trip!
Love, Murray
Oh, Murray, thank you so much for wihsing me a safe trip! Things are going very well at the north pole. We’re very busy this time of the year, but I think we’ll make it. Thank you for the carrots for my reindeer and for the cookies for me! Ho, Ho, Ho!
Dear Santa,
I would like a pink cotton candy cutie. And five surprises. How is Rudolph doing? Is the sleigh ready? I love Mrs. Claus. How are the reindeer?
…
Dear Santa,
I want an iPhone. Thank you.
From, Nixon
Well, I certainly appreciate your brevity…
Dear Santa,
I am thankful that you let me come to the mall every year. Sorry that I can’t come this year
…
Ho, Ho, Ho!
[Bells]
Ho, Ho, Ho! I sure do appreciate the letters from everyone and I just want to say, Merry Christmas and Happy new Year! Ho, Ho, Ho!
Beckley: Once again, I’m Lindsey Beckley and this has been Talking Hoosier History. Talking Hoosier History is a product of the Indiana Historical Bureau, a Division of the Indiana State Library. This episode was researched and written by me, Lindsey Beckley. Sound engineering and production by Jill Weiss Simins. Thanks as always to Justin Clark for lending his voice to the show. You can find a full transcript and show notes for this episode by visiting Blog.history.in.gov and clicking Talking Hoosier History at the top. Find us on Facebook and Twitter as the Indiana Historical Bureau and remember to like, rate, and review Talking Hoosier History wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for listening!
Show Notes for Santa Claus, Indiana: “Where It’s Christmas Every Day”
Websites
“The Story of Santa Claus, Indiana,” Santa Claus, Indiana, November 15, 2018.
“A Town Named Santa Claus,” RoadsideAmerica.com.
“Park History: From Santa Claus Land to Holiday World,” Holidayworld.com.
“Dear Santa: How a Rural Indiana Post Office Became a Hub for Holiday Mail,” Roadtrippers.com.
“Raymond Joseph ‘Jim’ Yellig,” International Santa Claus Hall of Fame.
Newspapers
“Letters to Santa Claus,” (Munster) Times, December 9, 1910, 9.
“Letters to Santa Claus,” (Rushville) Daily Republican, December 15, 1922, 9.
“Believe it or Not,” (Spokane) Spokesman-Review, January 7, 1930, 15.
“Santa Claus, Indiana., P.O. Swamped with Mail to be Resent with Coveted Mark,” (Fort Myers) News-Press, December 23, 1930.
“Santa Claus May Lost its Name,” (New London) Ralls County Record, December 11, 1931.
“Rename ‘Santa Claus?’ Not Much, Is Chorus of Indiana Congressmen,” Indianapolis Star, December 25, 1931, 10.
“Friends of Santa Claus Win Temporary Victory,” Garrett Clipper, December 31, 1931, 7.
“Santa Claus Town is Battlefield for Rivals,” Evansville Press, December 22, 1935, 1.
“There’s Less Peace and Good Will in Santa Claus as Town Gains Fame,” Muncie Evening Press, November 11, 1937, 7.
“Santa Claus Town May Expand,” Bedford Sunday Star, December 24, 1937, 2.
“Letters to Santa Claus,” Evansville Courier and Press, December 5, 1948, 74.
“Santa Claus Land,” Princeton Daily Clarion, September 25, 1957, 8.
Books
Ronald Baker, From Needmore to Prosperity, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Other Sources
“Santa Claus Land,” Santa Claus Land Brochure, Flickr.
