I started my day at BWI, flying on Southwest to Louisville, KY to see a client. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a guy in a Santa Claus suit in the terminal. Apparently, you can now have your picture taken with Jolly Ol' St Nick at the airport and not just at the mall. What a neat idea.

Anyway, I got finished at my customer's around 4:30 PM which left me some time to look around Louisville. Now, you might think Louisville would be a boring place, but this is not so. There is Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby Museum. There's also the Louisville Slugger factory where the baseball bats are made. Louisville also happens to be the birthplace of Cassius Clay, a.k.a. Mohammed Ali, a.k.a. "The Greatest".

At any rate, it didn't matter since all of these museums/attractions closed at 5:00 pm. In keeping with the theme of my morning, however, I was soon to discover that there is a town in nearby Indiana called "Santa Claus". That's right. The people there decided to call their tiny burg "Santa Claus". This was just too good to pass up. Problem is, the town is about 60 miles away from my clients. I didn't mind driving an hour to see something, but I decided it would be best to put $20 of my own money into the rental's gas tank, since I wasn't on company business.

I had no idea what I would find, but I figured there had to be a decent story behind a name like that. And sure, enough, I found the place after about an hour's drive. Santa Claus is a real town in Indiana. It comes complete with it's own street signs, ZIP code, and Interstate Exit. (Exit 63 off I-64) To be blunt, the place isn't much of a growing concern. I found a pizza shop that looked nice for dinner, but they are closed on Mondays. There is an amusement park there called "Holiday World". I found a "Santa's Lodge" hotel and a campground called "Lake Rudolph". I've seen some tourist traps in my day, but I have to admit that this was one of the campiest as well as the coolest.

I didn't get my questions answered about the name until I discovered the "Santa Claus Museum". It is located in "Kringle Place Shopping Center" off Highway 162. (Notice a theme here?) The museum is free of charge (donations accepted) and can be strolled around in about 10 minutes, but it is worth the trip. To make a long story short, as I understand the story, this town was first settled by farmers who moved up from Kentucky. Over time, the population grew and the locale came to be known as Santa Fe. Eventually, the population become large enough that the folks in Santa Fe felt that they deserved a post office. They wrote the Post Master General to request one, only to have their application come back rejected. Unbeknownst to them, they apparently were not the first "Santa Fe" in the state. A group of Hoosiers in another area had first claim to the name and the Postal Service didn't want there to be any confusion, so they insisted on a name change. The citizens got together to hold a meeting in their church on Dec 24, right before Christmas services, and decided on the name "Santa Claus" since it would probably be unique, not just in Indiana, but in the entire United States. Of course, they were correct.

They still have their post office today and it has become the town's claim to fame. (Look it up. ZIP code 47579) Naturally, children from all over the world started sending their Christmas letters to this post office hoping to get a reply with Santa's own postmark. The postal workers here have been replying for decades. At the museum, they have a special area where children are encouraged to write their letters. Naturally, people drive here from miles around to have their Christmas cards and packages stamped with the special postmark. It keeps the employees busy every year, starting right after Thanksgiving.

As I understand it, the US Postal Service actually wanted to have the town's name changed during the 1930's in order to save manpower and the extra workload every December. Apparently, children from all over the country started a letter writing campaign to the Postmaster General in order to get him to change his mind. It was eventually successful and the town retained it's claim to fame.

If you're interested, it is definitely worth taking the time to pass through. The town is only a few miles away from where President Lincoln's boyhood home was, so there are other attractions to see in the area.