How Did Santa Claus Indiana Get Its Name?

Spencer County Visitors Bureau

Full disclosure. I’ve been to Santa Claus Indiana, a small town of about 2600 people. It is a big deal if you are a fan of Christmas. And even though I am a professional name developer, I did not know the origin of its name.

Seems obvious, right?

Actually, nobody really knows.

Here is the background. When the town was established in the 1850’s it was first known as Santa Fee. However, the town could not get a post office because it was believed that Santa Fee was too close to an existing town in Indiana, Santa Fe.

There are two theories about how the Santa Claus name was chosen. One theory is that the person who completed the name change application for the post office just wrote Santa Clause as a joke on the naming document. The other theory is that during a Christmas Eve discussion with the public about the name change, the wind blew open the door and a young child shouted “Santa Claus!”.

If I had to choose between a prankster bureaucrat and a small child experiencing the magic of Christmas, I’d side with the small child 10 out of 10 times.

Merry Christmas everybody!

P.S. If you write a letter to Santa and send it to the post office at Santa Claus, Indiana, local residents will write back (the town gets over 20,000 letters to Santa each year)!

HT Morning Brew