Santa Claus Museum & Village — Attraction in Santa Claus

It’s Christmas everyday!

My husband and I recently went on a road trip to Santa Claus, Indiana. Why? Well, why not?!

Let me just start out by talking about the staff that was present. The wonderful lady who was working the front desk was so unbelievably sweet and very knowledgable. The gentleman who was setting up things in the train area was a great guy who sparked a conversation with my husband. Awesome service!

The Museum: What can I say about this museum? It had everything! And I mean everything that had to do with Santa Claus. There were rooms of figurines, a full-size sled, tons of letters from children written to Santa Claus, vintage toys on display and a tv playing Christmas movies. There were life-size scenes and even Santa‘s office which we just loved! Every little detail of this museum was there. The office specifically had letters laying on the desk with Santa’s phone nearby. Santa‘s nameplate on the front of the desk and even his golf clubs sitting behind like he had just come in from the course and sat down to check out his newest mail. Christmas trees donned the area and even the restroom was decked out in Santa Claus clear down to the toilet paper holder 🤭

There was a lot of hands-on activities for the little ones. The train room was really cool. One of the trains was basically Santa Claus, Indiana with miniature versions of larger items you can see throughout town. There were buttons for you to run the trains. A gift shop is located in the middle of the museum and has everything from shirts to books and more! We purchased a shirt and a postcard to commemorate our visit. At the very end, we were given instructions on where to go to write a letter to Santa Claus, which would be the post office within the village. Don’t forget to leave a donation as this wonderful place runs by this only.

The Post Office: The original Santa Claus post office. When you go in, it’s actually reminiscent of a school house as there are desks sitting all around, but those are there for the fun part! When you’re in the museum, she hands you paper and gives you instructions on what you need to do to write a letter to Santa Claus. In December, you will receive something from them in return. After you finish writing, you put it into the mailbox and you have to make sure and ring the sleigh bells so the elves know that there is mail to pick up. Inside the post office, there are trees with lots of handmade ornaments that children have sent in, the post office mailboxes are all decorated with elves and little packages. There are also some items that were from the original Santa Claus Land that used to stand down the road. It was just so much fun being in here and photographing different areas of the building.

Across the way, is the historic Santa Claus Church. This was also located somewhere else and was moved to this location. White on the outside with pine wreaths welcoming you through the doors. When you go inside, you really see the true meaning of Christmas. Nativity scene on the altar, Christmas trees that just look as though they were meant to be in a church, candles in the windows. There are also original pieces still there such as the lanterns on the wall and the wood burner. Again, just a wonderful place to check out. There is also a donation box on the wall in the church that you can donate to the stamps for the letters sent out in December.

There is also the 1935 Santa Claus statue, which is the oldest Santa Claus statue in America, a mistletoe area, and a wishing well! Highly recommend visiting!

Open...

Worth a visit!

A friend and I were road tripping between St Louis and Louisville and saw Santa Claus, IN was a very short detour on our route. We decided to stop and check it out. This was our very first stop in town.

This site has a few things going on - the museum, the first post office, the church and a santa claus statue.

We started at the museum where we were provided with information that made our visit easier. The museum has a few different rooms all with different themes. I LOVED the room with letters to Santa from kids. They were so cute!!! I read A LOT of them and spent most my time here doing that. Kids can write letters to Santa at the museum - there is a little station set up for it. There were a few souvenirs you could buy at the museum as well.

Church - super quick, you walk in, see the decorations and are pretty much done.

Santa statue - nice picture opportunity and I liked that the base had quotes on each side that were heartwarming.

Post Office - mainly a photo opp as well, but I enjoyed the Christmas tree decorations inside. The ornaments are items sent in by customers.

Overall we enjoyed it and it was worth the 40 minutes or so...

Lost in all of the success of Holiday World is the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. It started off as Santa Fe but was forced to change due to the name already being in use. There are many different myths and legends as to how Santa Claus was picked in the 1800s with the most popular belief being that a bunch of kids ran into the church yelling Santa Claus.

It wasn't until 1914 when Postmaster General James Martin started the letters from Santa Claus initiative. That led to Santa's Candy Castle opening as the world's first themed attraction and Carl Barrett building the town's main Santa Claus statue. All 3 buildings still exist today and the current post office now gets over 20,000 Christmas letters a year.

And then Bill Koch and the Koch family took it to a whole new level with Holiday World that turned 75 years old this year. There's a whole board of things he accomplished with most of them, except for US 231 and rerouting I-64, being good. It'll be interesting to see what the next round of...