In rural Santa Claus, Indiana, Christmas is more than just a holiday—it’s woven into the fabric of the town’s history. Since gaining its memorable name in 1856, the small town’s tradition of answering “Dear Santa” letters every year has grown into a global phenomenon.
This semester, IU graduate student Brittany Eckler is helping preserve many of those letters—some nearly 100 years old—as a Rural Archives Scholar through the IU Center for Rural Engagement’s Rural Scholars Program, an initiative that matches IU students with high-priority projects in rural communities.
She’s collaborating with the Santa Claus Museum & Village, a popular destination spot for holiday enthusiasts, families, children at heart, and curious travelers passing by on IN-245 and Highway 162, not far off of Interstate 64. The site features a museum, a historic church from 1880, and the town’s original post office, where visitors can write their own letters to Santa.
“Each letter that comes from a child is read. Each letter we send has a personalized message. We work very hard to see that these children get an answer from Santa.”
-Pat Koch, Founder of Santa Claus Museum & VillageEckler, a library science graduate student, is working to catalog and digitize an extensive collection of the museum’s “Dear Santa” letters, some dating back to the 1930s. The tradition first started in 1914 when James Martin, the town’s postmaster, began receiving children’s letters to Santa.
According to Eckler, letters simply addressed to “Santa Claus” were directed to Santa Claus, Indiana—the only post office in the world with that name (a fact that remains true today). The frequency of letters snowballed after Ripley’s Believe It or Not! featured the town in January of 1930.
“All of a sudden, all the letters were getting sent to Santa Claus, Indiana. And then it just became the thing to do,” Eckler said, adding that the town now receives more than 20,000 letters annually.
Throughout history, children’s wishes have often reflected the spirit of their times.
“Some children aren’t even asking for gifts,” Eckler said. “They’re asking for peace, especially during World War II.”
As an archivist, Eckler has always especially enjoyed working with children’s materials. “I think they have a really interesting perspective that adults can learn from,” she said.
In addition to working with the letters, Eckler is combing through boxes of photos, Christmas memorabilia, and other museum items.
“I’ve been using a spreadsheet—going through it item by item, picture by picture—and describing what I see and what condition it’s in. I’m looking for any external information I can find, like who owned it prior,” she said.
Her goal is to create a searchable database the museum can use to quickly find items in its collection. She also hopes to expand their website and upload the digital archive for anyone in the world to access.
“I think the most important thing is making sure that the museum and the people there are happy and feel good about the work that we’ve done,” Eckler said. “I want to ensure that, whatever they ask, we can achieve that—and even a step above that.”
Despite the town’s small size—its population is just over 2,500—Santa Claus welcomes more than a million visitors per year. The museum itself is a sensory delight, brimming with holiday memorabilia and local history. Its walls and halls display vintage toys and dolls, framed letters to Santa spanning the decades, and historic town documents.
Among the many Christmas treasures on display is a life-sized wax Santa modeled after Jim Yellig, the town’s first Santa and “one of the most beloved and legendary Santas of all time,” according to the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame.
Yellig’s legacy is especially important to his daughter, Pat Koch. She’s the museum’s founder and, at 93, has been helping answer letters to Santa for more than 80 years, since she was just 12.
Today, she holds the title of chief elf of Santa’s Elves, a team of local volunteers who help answer the thousands of letters that pour into the town every year from around the globe.
As Christmas approaches each year, the volunteer elves gather at the village’s post office.
“Each letter that comes from a child is read. Each letter we send has a personalized message. We work very hard to see that these children get an answer from Santa,” Koch said.
When she’s not leading her team of elves, Koch spends much of her time volunteering at the museum and around the village.
“It’s like everything else. I get a lot more out of it than I put in,” she said. “Just the gratitude from people, or a child getting so excited about seeing Santa here, or being able to write a letter—it’s great.” Koch said.
Before it was a town called “Santa Claus,” the area was a small farming community settled by German immigrants, originally named “Santa Fee.” By 1856, the town’s population was large enough to apply for its own post office. Fatefully, the name “Santa Fee” was rejected because it was too similar to the already existing Santa Fe, Indiana.
The official account of how the town chose “Santa Claus” as its name is seemingly lost to the passage of time. But as with many rural towns, a local legend endures.
According to the Santa Claus Museum’s website, a group of townspeople gathered at the local church one wintry evening to decide on a new name. As the story goes, a gust of wind blew open the church doors, and the sound of sleigh bells echoed in. The children excitedly ran to the door and shouted, “Santa Claus! Santa Claus!” And thus, the name was born.
Though the true story behind the town’s name remains a mystery, one interesting fact stands out—the postmaster who submitted the formal request to change the town’s name was named Nickolaus. “Unless I have that original document with me, people don’t believe it,” Koch said with a laugh.
Koch is grateful for Eckler’s meticulous efforts to preserve the rich history of Santa Claus, Indiana, the town she’s called home her entire life and continues to celebrate.
“I think there are people who are very interested in history,” Koch said. “Being old, I realize how important it is to get the right history—not something somebody said or that they heard, but documented research. And I think that for future generations, it’s so important that it be right.”
For Eckler, the chance to help document the town’s one-of-a-kind heritage is both an honor and an opportunity to highlight the rich history of rural communities.
“It’s been special meeting with people in Santa Claus and seeing how passionate they are about their town, this museum, and the history,” Eckler said. “I think this project is important because rural communities don’t always have a lot of access to the same resources that more urban or suburban communities have. They deserve just as much attention and help as any other community.”
