Dear Diary,

Who knew?

There is a Santa Claus, Indiana!

Santa Claus is located just 7 miles south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana.

According to legend, this small community, originally founded by German immigrants in the late 1840s, got its name on Christmas Eve in 1852. The local residents and leaders had been struggling quite some time to come up with an acceptable name for their town. Most of the community was present for the last town meeting of the year, held right after Christmas Eve services in the local church. They were hoping to finally determine a name for their town, when suddenly the wind blew the church doors open and mysterious sleigh bells were heard outside. The children yelled excitedly, “It’s Santa Claus!” At last! They finally had the perfect name for the town.

In the 1940's, Industrialist Louis J. Koch, built the World’s first theme park in the town of Santa Claus. Koch loved holidays and wanted children who visited the town to be able to see that this was truly Santa's home. The theme park, originally named Santa Claus Land, has experienced tremendous growth over the years and is well-known today as Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari.
Santa Claus is the only town in the world with the Santa Claus name that has a post office. You will find quite a few other Christmas-themed business and street names throughout the town - everything from Christmas Lake Village and Kringle Place to Santa’s Lodge, Holiday Foods and Ho Ho Ho Video. Each year, this small town hosts an old-fashioned Christmas in Santa Claus celebration and a 14-mile Festival of Lights.
http://www.traveleze.com/travel_planning/santaclaus.html