{"id":28,"date":"2007-12-22T07:50:46","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T12:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2022-04-27T06:05:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T11:05:37","slug":"santa-claus-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/santa-claus-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Claus, Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In southern Indiana east of Evansville, a town of 2,000 people exudes the holiday spirit year-round. They gave it the curious name “Santa Claus” (map<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What the Clause?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Santa<\/a>
Santa Clause Town Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Various sources including Wikipedia<\/a> claim that the town was originally called Santa Fe when it was founded in 1856. However residents had to change the name when the post office was established. Another town in Indiana\u00a0claimed Santa Fe first so this one had to select something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least residents had a sense of humor since what else could possibly explain the choice of Santa Claus? If the story ended there it wouldn’t be all that remarkable. There are unusually named towns all over the landscape. But it gets much stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents really embraced the name. Today it’s a tourist attraction for all things Santa Claus including Santa’s Candy Castle, a Santa Claus Museum, the Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Frosty’s Fun Center, Christmas Lake Golf Course. I imagine it’s a lot of fun during the holiday season. But wouldn’t it get a little old in the steaming heat of summer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even the Street Names!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n