That’s right, the North Pole! Technically a suburb just south of Fairbanks, it’s a town of about 2,200 people, and the home base of Santa Claus. We settled into a beautiful campground in the Chena Lakes Recreation Area, just outside of town and long both the Chena River and Chena Lake. Since it’s July 3, I didn’t know what would be open tomorrow on the holiday (and truth be told, I couldn’t wait to go) so we went ahead to the official Santa Claus house. On the way, we passed street names like Mistletoe Ln and Snowman Dr and the St Nicholas Catholic Church. He lives right off the Richardson Highway. The gift shop was quite impressive with ornaments and toys and other tourist items. If you mail a postcard directly from there, it will be post marked the North Pole so we made sure to get some cards sent to our families. (If you send them from the official post office in town, they get postmarked from Fairbanks.)
As we often do in gift shops, we divide and conquer. Then Mark comes over frantically alerting me that Santa is right around the corner. I am 41 years old and I’m not embarrassed to admit that my heart beat skipped a little bit and I definitely felt a little adrenaline rush! What child of any age wouldn’t get excited to meet Santa?? I got my sister Britni on the phone and she quickly gathered the kids and they got to face time with the real Santa. This guy is absolutely legit! There was no one in line so I approached Santa and Mrs Claus and asked if they would be willing to chat with the kids. He took the phone right out of my hands and had a full on conversation with them, about getting along with each other and obeying their mom. He said they were expecting a busy year so it was important that they got their letters to him in November. (But get this… only 4 of Britni’s kids were home and Santa knew that there were 5 of them. Told you he’s real.) After hanging up, I chatted with them both. The absolute nicest and jolliest people. My nephew Jacob texted to tell me he knew that was the real Santa because he was old. And now he’s on the naughty list. Ha! Ha! Though Mrs Claus used it as an excuse to nag Santa about face cream. When I said good bye and thanked them, they both wished me a Merry Christmas! Just an absolute pleasure and dream come true. Across the parking lot, we also stopped by the Antler Academy, where the reindeer train. While 8 reindeer were there, Rudolph was off doing flight training at nearby Eielson Air Force Base.
The North Pole town itself is really cute. Candy canes line the light poles. The visitor center is an old sunken log cabin with a sod roof. We attended a very good Pancake Breakfast put on by the Senior Center and then followed with the July 4th parade, not expecting much. The streets were lined with people and it was a great parade. I got to see my friend Santa in the very first float behind the flags. Wait, let me elaborate a little bit. Picture this… It was a slightly chilly 68F. We were seated on Santa Claus Lane. I thought he would be the last float of the parade, like the Thanksgiving Parade, but of course he rode in the place of honor as the first car. The song would not stop running through my head, “Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane.” That is a moment I will never, ever forget!
The peony club passed out peonies to every lady (and my fully blossomed in the next couple days), and several clubs passed out candy. There were horses, sheep, a llama, and a poodle. Floats had snowmen and tent campers. My favorite moment was when the Alaska Railroad train came along parallel to the road and blew their whistle. Then the fire trucks greeted us with their sirens. Back and forth they went, train whistles and fire truck sirens, celebrating our nation’s independence together in such a unique North Pole way.
Hearts full, but bellies empty, we found our way to the North Pole Crepery. OMG! They had every kind of savory and sweet crepe you can imagine. Mark enjoyed the pizza crepe while I savored the Greek crepe. Of course we couldn’t leave without dessert and happily shared a strawberry, banana, chocolate cream stuffed with whipped cream. A definitely must stop in this awesome little town to wrap up a perfect day!
