This PR photo apparently promotes a popular brand of snowmobile. It's "Santa's Snowmobile" at Santa Claus House, North P
Santa Claus House and Statue
North Pole, Alaska
The slogan of the town of North Pole, Alaska is "Where the Spirit of Christmas Lives Year Round." It is the northernmost Santa-themed tourist attraction, and therein lies its flaw.
The joke with Santa Lands in the lower 48 is that they are plain silly -- akin to a Wild West Town in New Jersey, or a miniature China in Texas. Look, kids -- Santa sweating in 90 degree heat! Ho! Ho! Ho!
A North Pole in Alaska suffers from diminished comedy opportunities in its wan polar light. What's the fun of an artificially iced North "Pole" in a place where the winter temperature slides to 70 degrees below zero?*
Yet North Pole, Alaska has the edge on all those other North Poles and Christmas Lands when it comes to kid cred. The town receives mountains of mail from all over the world, answered by a "Santa," or SASEs at least postmarked from the North Pole (Zip code is 99705),
For those that make the trip in person, there are worthy sights: a 42- ft. fiberglass Santa Claus statue stands on Richardson Hwy, and other Christmas items decorate the town.
* Turns out it can climb as high as 93 degrees in the summer, but all an overheated St. Nick has to do is throw himself down on the permafrost. In Christmas, Florida, it's hideous death by deep fry....
