Traveling the Highways & Byways with Bill Graves

t Traveling the Highways & Byways with Bill Graves

Southern Indiana, southbound on Highway 162: I just went by the Nancy Hanks Lincoln School, a reminder that this is the home turf of our 16th president. Nancy Lincoln was Abe Lincoln’s mother. She is buried a few miles east of here at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. The highway makes a turn into Santa Claus and becomes Christmas Boulevard. Passing the Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari — where even on this 90-degree day, the parking lot is full - I turned onto Holiday Boulevard. Just beyond the Silent Night Café, packets of firewood are stacked next to the road offered on the honor system. Every few minutes the Raven Rollercoaster, at Holiday World, swoops right down next to the surface of the lake at about 60 miles an hour.

Santa Claus, Indiana

This 155-year old town of Santa Claus has 2,200 residents. The Ohio River is just south of here. The closest big city is Louisville, KY, about an hour away. Its gas station, grocery store, and post office are in the Kringle Place Shopping Center, which is as “downtown” as this place gets. Its centerpiece is a 50-foot cone of lights – they call it Santa’s LED Christmas tree. It runs a choreographed light show, set to Christmas music, every night at nine. During the Christmas Season, the 15-minute show runs hourly. Santa Claus, in statue form, stands in front of the post office holding a Christmas package over his head touting zip code 47579. And well he should. This is his town. His name and picture are everywhere. The hotel is Santa’s Lodge. Even the Catholic Church is named Saint Nicholas.

Robert Ripley, in his nationally-syndicated “Believe It or Not” newspaper cartoon, brought world attention to the Santa Claus post office. He wrote that in this village of 50 people, “The Postmaster acts as ‘Santa’ and mailed out 100,000 letters.” That was in 1929. “We handle about a half million pieces of Christmas mail,” Geri Ferguson told me. “And most of it gets cancelled by hand.” She has worked in the post office here for 26 years. The cancellation stamp –they call it a picture postmark – is a bit smaller than a deck of cards. “Every year it’s redesigned. But it always says ‘Santa Claus Station’ and has Santa on it. They run a contest at the high school among the senior art students. The teacher brings in the pictorial art for the stamp and we pick the winner. And that depiction goes all over the world. “We’ve got three people. And it gets really hectic around here. Kids come in with their parents, usually the same ones every year. We let them hand-cancel all their Christmas cards, up to 20-a-day anyway. Starting about Thanksgiving, people send us their Christmas cards to be postmarked and mailed. All we ask is that the cards have the proper postage.” And then there are the letters to Santa. They come in from all over by the thousands. Santa’s address is PO Box 1, Santa Claus, IN 47579. Santa’s Elves, a group of volunteers, answers them – every one. From the woody hills of Indiana, from Santa Claus, where every morning is Christmas morning – Merry Christmas.

About the author: After seeing much of the world as a career naval officer, Bill Graves decided, after he retired, to take a closer look at the United States. He has been roaming the country for 20 years, much of it in a motorhome with his dog Rusty. He lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California and is the author of On the Back Roads, Discovering Small Towns of America. He can be reached at Roadscribe@aol.com.