Spencer County: Santa Claus, Indiana

Okay so remember when I started these county tours and I told you I'm not much of a history buff? I guess it depends on what KIND of history. I didn't fare so well in school learning about battles and war generals, but I'm not gonna lie...learning how Santa Claus, Indiana got its name had me all sorts of intrigued. So if you can believe what you read on Wikipedia, here's the basis of the story.

The town was originally named Santa Fe, but in 1856, when they tried to establish a post office, their application was rejected because there was already a Santa Fe. So they held some meetings, decided on Santa Claus instead...and that's what they became! It's not a very big town, but it's grown tremendously in the last 25 years. They get letters to Santa every year, and a group of volunteers known as the elves {naturally} make sure every letter gets answered. They even have their own postmark for December, and each year it's created by a student at the local high school. I think that's pretty cool.

Ryan said this town should be my happy place since it's all Christmas, all year long. Christmas music, Christmas stores...Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! {He's right.}

And so it was that we set about to see the sights of Santa Claus, Indiana!

Interestingly enough, one thing this town does NOT have much of? Places to eat. So we selected this little pizza joint and went inside. 

It wasn't very busy when we were there, so we had a chance to meet the owner. Super nice guy who treated us like we were his best ever customers. We got the buffet and he brought us breadsticks on the house AND custom made a pizza for us. Impressive!! {And the food was so good!}

After lunch, we went shopping at one of the Christmas stores that was open. {Sadly, not all the stores were open on Friday...by this late in the year, some are only open on the weekends, so we had to miss a few.}

Then we had to find our coffee shop for the county!!

When I did my online research, I could actually only find one coffee shop {if there are others, they must not be online!!} and it was brand new this year! WHEW! Thanks for opening up for us! It's called the Kringle Haus Werkstatt and it's right there in Santa Claus.

It's owned by an engaged couple, Steve and Becky, and their vision was to make a coffee shop that also features the work of local people! So they have a few people who provide baked goods to go with the coffee, a local winery has a satellite location inside for wine tastings, and then all kinds of local artists bring in their products to sell in one section of the coffee shop. They had pottery and furniture and jewelry and woodwork and more. Gorgeous pieces. And Steve has his woodshop right there too, and you can watch him work while you drink your coffee! A unique and creative partnership for a coffee shop!

Because it was SO HOT out, Ryan and I each got white chocolate frappes, and they were magnificent. I so love a frappe.

Thanks, Santa Claus, for giving us such a great time in your town!! It was fun! {And weird...to be in so much Christmas-ness on a 95 degree day with 100% humidity!