Towns that celebrate christmas year round

For some, Christmas is less a season than it is a state of mind. You know who you are. Your toes tingle at the sight of tinsel. You are the one standing in the dairy aisle when the stock

boys unload the first crates of eggnog in late November. For you, Boxing Day, on Dec. 26, is a day of mourning. If only you could make that yuletide joy last after the lights have come down

and the tree is lying sadly by the curb. If only there were places where the spirit of St. Nick lives on through the spring and into the summer and the fall. If only there were places where

it never ended. Happily, there are! Here are six of them. The festive 40-ton statue overlooks Santa Claus, Ind. KEVIN PANG/NEWSCOM SANTA CLAUS, IND. Legend has it that this tiny town in

southwestern Indiana took on Christmas’ most familiar name in the 1850s, when the U.S. Post Office rejected its original name of Santa Fe. At some point in the early 20th century, mail began

piling up at the Santa Claus Post Office during the holiday season. Everyone wanted that precious postmark on their cards and packages. America being what it is, the moneymakers then

stepped in. A lawyer from nearby Vincennes set up a souvenir shop for the decorative sleighs he made. Toy manufacturers and a candymaker moved into what was dubbed Santa’s Candy Castle. A

40-ton statue of Santa Claus went up in an overlook on the edge of town, and an Evansville industrialist set up the Santa Claus Land theme park on 260 acres of rolling farmland nearby (now

known as Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, a full-blown alpine amusement park). Outside the park, there is a Santa Claus Museum, a winery and a year-round Christmas store. There’s even a

Christmas Lake Village residential area where all the streets have holiday-related names. The Incredible Christmas Place has an array of décor. NEWSCOM PIGEON FORGE, TENN. Just outside the

northern border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pigeon Forge survived the vicious wildfires — which engulfed nearby Gatlinburg in 2016 — relatively unscathed. Dollywood is still

intact, as are the dozens of miniature golf courses, go-kart tracks and country music venues. Also still standing, thankfully, is the Incredible Christmas Place, the largest permanent

Christmas retailer in the South and the epicenter of Pigeon Forge’s holiday industrial complex. What began as a small gift shop in 1986 has morphed into the ultimate Christmas emporium, with

43,000 square feet of retail space offering everything from personalized ornaments and lights to garlands and nativity scenes. Santa is in residence year-round, of course. ARTICLE CONTINUES

AFTER ADVERTISEMENT A 42-foot fiberglass statue of St. Nick greets merchants at the Santa Claus House outlet. REMSBERG/NEWSCOM NORTH POLE, ALASKA Does it matter that a town calls itself

North Pole even though it’s 1,700 miles from the real thing? Apparently not, as this town outside Fairbanks has come to know. The town’s founders had hoped the name, officially changed in

1949, would attract a toy manufacturer eager to claim that its products were made at the North Pole. Alas, those dreams never materialized. The locals have done their best to keep the dream 

alive, however, leaving up the Christmas decorations year-round, festooning everything in red and white stripes, naming most of the streets in the holiday theme and erecting a massive Santa

Claus House retail outlet with a 42-foot fiberglass statue of St. Nick, who's covered with letters from good little boys and girls from around the world.