SIL - Nov / Dec 2021

Holidays In SoIN
Santa Claus Haus Beckons
Kids of all ages can visit St. Nick year-round
Elf Ally and Santa with Santa’s sleigh, Silent Night
Story by Carol Ubelhor-Troesch
Photos by Hope Davis
12 • Nov/Dec 2021 • Southern Indiana Living
“One of the most unusual gifts
ever requested was from a little
boy, about 6 years old, who said
he wanted a stick for Christmas,”
Santa shared. “I asked him
what he was going to do with a stick,
and he said he was going to make a
guitar.”
Santa’s favorite memories of
Christmas are plentiful, and many
include the children who stop to see
him and share the magic.
“I’m also asked many times for
things that Santa just cannot do, so I
suggest we pray about those things.
If they approve, we start praying
right there. Some people say I am
the ‘Praying Santa,’ but I just believe
that’s what Santa is about.”
These wonderful thoughts of
Christmas, and the strong feeling that
America’s Christmas Hometown,
otherwise known as Santa Claus, Indiana,
needed to have a Santa available
to the entire community yearround,
led to the idea of Santa Claus
Haus.
Nestled behind the fire station
in Santa Claus, Indiana, Santa Claus
Haus is currently located at 200 Patricia
Koch Drive, within the Santa
Claus Community Center, but the
plan doesn’t stop there.
When the COVID-19 pandemic
basically kept Santa himself out of the
town in 2020, Santa began to dream.
One of the businesses had decided
not to have Santa during the usual
time frame of May through December,
and instead planned only a couple
weeks in July and then for parts
of November and December. Another
location decided to have only a “virtual”
Santa.
This bothered Santa, he said, because
“I have become quite fond of
this community over the years and
have a passion for it, and its beginnings.
After a couple of very restless
weeks, I came up with an idea.”
It was his dream for Santa to not
belong to any one particular entity or
business. He needed his own place
where everyone could comfortably
visit with Santa and have their photo
taken or stop by for a chat with a feeling
as though they had walked into
Santa’s living room for a visit.
He also knew that the venture
had to be a nonprofit, so it could exist
in perpetuity. It would have to meet
the gold-seal standards of nonprofit
501(c)3 corporations.
“I started talking to several people
about the idea and where this
could possibly be located for now,”
Santa explained. “During the process,
I did not find one person who
was negative about the idea. In fact,
I found several people who were
very enthusiastic about it.” Those
enthusiastic people were then asked
to serve on the fledgling Board of Directors.
Several declined, but some
wholeheartedly agreed. The board