Christmas All Year Long

About an hour north of my farm, folks celebrate Christmas all year long.

You would, too, if you lived in a place called Santa.

Yep, nestled in the hills and forests of the Idaho Panhandle sits a tiny town named Santa.

Santa_KLEW1

But Santa, Idaho, isn’t the only town that rustles up the holiday spirit year-round. How about

  • Santa Claus, Arizona, Georgia, and Indiana
  • Snow, Idaho
  • North Pole, Alaska
  • Silver Bell, Arizona
  • Eggnog, Utah
  • Christmas Valley, Oregon
  • Holly, Washington
  • Christmas, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Mississippi
  • Shepherd, Montana
  • Elf, North Carolina
  • Mistletoe, Arkansas and Kentucky
  • Bethlehem (this one’s in 18 states)

Also, nearly all of Santa’s reindeer have towns named after them. (Not to mention the 36 locations with “Reindeer” in their names.)

  • Rudolph Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin
  • Dasher (Creek), Georgia
  • Dancer (Flats), Texas
  • Prancer (WAIT, where’s Prancer? He must have been out on a mission when they handed out towns!)
  • Vixen, Louisiana
  • Comet, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia
  • Cupid, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma
  • Donner, California, Florida, and Louisiana
  • Blitzen, Oregon

You’ll find all these and many more in William D. Crump’s The Christmas Encyclopedia.

 christmas-encyc

Packed with everything Christmas and now in its third edition, the encyclopedia includes Christmas carols and hymns; customs; historical events; popular symbols; plants; celebrations; Christmas movies, plays, books, and TV; and more. A perfect early present for anyone who loves everything Christmas.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    This is a very cool book idea for someone. Every now and them I run across a person who does Christmas all year long and loves collecting various elements of the holiday. I am going to file this away in my list of good books for that special day when it could become just the right gift from Santa’s bag.

  2. Cindi says:

    I’ve never heard of such a book, what a wonderful find! Every year they offer little tidbits of Christmas facts on the radio, often repeating the same over and over and over. I like that portion of the broadcast but it isn’t very thorough. Gotta get a copy of this book right away! Have you any idea how much your writings contribute to my smarty-pants episodes? 🙂

  3. The number one question called in to the Central New York Library ( and pretty much every other library in the USA ?) the names of the reindeer !
    I have various encyclopedia type Christmas books and I treasure them all . The best though was a the LIfe magazine trilogy published in the early 60’s. Its got it all, and very studiously researched, fabulous photos, lots of great religious history of celebrations and so forth. I love to reread those kinds of books at holiday time. Oh and the dear ” Forever Christmas” all about our favorite author and illustrator, Tasha Tudor’s charming way of celebrating- lovely large format book with splendid photos .
    I had left a post a few days back mentioning my late friend, Sante C. Claus, the professional Santa Claus and how he had his drivers license from North Pole AK. My best friend’s last name is Rudolph and you can imagine the fun we have had with Rudolph reindeer stuff.

  4. Mary Pitman says:

    And, don’t forget Snow, Oklahoma!

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