North Pole

Santa Claus House

Just beyond the end of the Alaska Highway we arrived at North Pole where we camped beside Santa Claus House. And to all those that believe Santa lives in Lapland or that all his mail goes to 34^th Street in New York City, I’m here to tell you that North Pole, Alaska is his home. US children that write to Santa at the North Pole have their letters sent here, where teams of volunteer seniors and high school kids answer them. Then, they are returned duly stamped North Pole AK, 99705. Actually volunteers across America perform this service for the US Postal Service but this is the only place with that postmark. And you can also order a letter from Santa: topics include: Baby’s First Christmas, the Non-Believer, the Not-so-Good Child, a Difficult Christmas and, for all you Facebookers, there’s even one for your Cat.

'Shell-casing' Xmas lights

Santa’s Gone Hunting

We didn’t meet Santa but we did buy a number of Christmas items to take home, although some were a little too ‘redneck’, even for us!

North Pole sits between two large US military bases on the highway into Fairbanks. We drove past Eielson Air Force Base on the way in; it’s the first base in North America I’ve seen with ‘No Photography’ signs all along the highway fence. 

Once in the Santa store, I got chatting to an older woman as she served me…

“Your accent sounds more Alabama than Alaska,” I said.

“Yes,” she said, “...our son did 7 tours in Iraq and eventually he was blown up by a roadside bomb. He’s stationed here, so we sold up and moved here to care for him. It’s a long road back.” 

We often hear about those that are killed in service without realizing that ten times that number end up as ‘wounded warriors’… …a terrible price for the victims and their loved ones.

Caribou or Reindeer

Between the store and our campsite was a compound containing Santa’s reindeer, or as we call them in Canada, caribou. It was hard to tell which was Donner and which was Dasher, but in any case they are remarkable animals. In order to preserve body heat in the severe cold they maintain two body temperatures; 40.5°C (105°F) for their body and -6°C (20°F) for their legs, giving just enough circulation to prevent frostbite, and each strand of their hair is hollow for insulation. And, of course, all of Santa’s load bearers are female, even Rudolph; all males shed their antlers in the fall.

Santa wasn’t offering food, so we headed back and fired up the barbeque – sausages, the fall back food for campers, for supper. Despite lots of warnings about mosquitoes so large and numerous that we’d be carried off into the woods come late afternoon; we saw little sign of the pesky creatures.