The Santa Claus Statue in Santa Claus, Indiana

I thought that in the midst of summer heat (for some of us) we could use a little wintertime.



Here is the town's official page for the statue.

But Roadside America has a much more interesting tale. More details at the link.

It was purposely built on the highest hill in Santa Claus by businessman Carl Barrett, who wanted to antagonize his arch-rival Milton Harris, who was building his own attraction a hundred yards down the road. It was dedicated on Christmas Day 1935, less than a week after Harris had opened Santa's Candy Castle.

Barrett felt that Harris was commercializing Christmas. In contrast, Barrett claimed that the Santa statue had been built with the pennies of American schoolchildren. That may have been true, but he also claimed that the statue was built on the spot where a meteor had crashed (he hinted that this was a sign of divine guidance), and that it was made of solid granite. In fact there was no meteor, and the statue was later found to be made of concrete.