If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 174

A very Merry Christmas to all . . .

Today’s card shows the American version of Santa’s house and workshop at North Pole, Alaska.  North Pole is a small city located southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska; however, a large area within the same postal zip code is referred to as the North Pole even though it is south of the actual geographic North Pole by about 1700 miles. 

The Santa Claus House, a gift shop, shown on the postcard is the biggest tourist attraction in the area.  Originally this was a trading post established in the early days of settlement here.  The world’s largest fiberglass statue of Santa Claus can be found outside the Santa Claus House.  More and more Santa Claus themed attractions have been added throughout the years.  Before Christmas the North Pole post office receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa Claus and even more from people who want the town’s postmark on their outgoing Christmas cards.  There is a community program organized to respond to the letters addressed to Santa.  Streets lights are decorated to look like candy canes; streets have names such as, Kringle Drive, Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, and Snowman Lane.  Many local businesses have also adopted Christmas themed colors and decorations as have the local police with patrol cars in green and white, ambulances and fire trucks are all red.  One of the more prominent citizens, Con Miller, became known as Santa Claus because he frequently wore a Santa Claus suit during his early trading days in Alaska.  He served on the city council and was also mayor. 

On the reverse of the card is this message from the North Pole.

For more, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole,_Alaska

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ho Ho Ho

Ho Ho Ho

Each year since 1995 the Gimlet has acted as “elf” and driver for Santa (who needs help getting dressed and finds it difficult to drive once he is ensconced in his suit). This particular Santa has been the special guest at a private party for 30 years now and no one, except the elf, knows who he is! His visits were originally auctioned off as a way to donate to our local Children’s Hospital and were a huge success. The family who won the auction has continued the tradition all these years. It has turned into a multi generation event sometimes including neighbors as well as family. This year there were many, many small children (Santa got a real workout and the elf did too since he had the privilege of carrying Santa's bag of presents). It was an earlier evening than past years to accommodate the ages but Santa was just as charming as ever. As a bonus Santa makes an extra appearance at his elf’s home and the Gimlet children, Thing One and Thing Two, get a much more quiet but very welcome visit complete with candy canes. Mrs. Gimlet got some good pictures with her fancy camera but these are just from my phone and some turned out better than others. Oh yes, Santa did leave the Gimlets with a plateful of ‘tis the season cookies. Just a small thank you for all the joy and excitement he brings to the children each year.

Teenager Thing One is almost as tall as Santa now. “Grandma you need to hold the phone steady or the picture will be blurred.” Ooops.

Thing Two is still a bit over awed by Santa. “I’m not afraid.”

Thing Two says Santa is 8 feet tall!

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”