The house that Santa Claus built

If you thought that to reach the North Pole, you travel to the Arctic Circle and head north, you'd be right. However, go to Fairbanks, Alaska and take the Richardson Highway for 15 miles, and you'll come to the Tanana Valley "city" - with a population of around 1,700, we're not talking metropolis here - of North Pole.

If you thought that to reach the North Pole, you travel to the Arctic Circle and head north, you'd be right. However, go to Fairbanks, Alaska and take the Richardson Highway for 15 miles, and you'll come to the Tanana Valley "city" - with a population of around 1,700, we're not talking metropolis here - of North Pole.

In 1944, this area, 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle, was homesteaded by one Bon Davis; a development company then bought the homestead and subdivided it. When it was later named North Pole, the name was chosen to attract the toy industry to manufacture articles that they could legally advertise as being "Made in North Pole". (In the US, Santa Claus is said to live at the North Pole, as opposed to being an inhabitant of Lapland.) The toy-makers' responses were as icy as the local winter weather, which can plummet to minus 50C. But at Christmas in 1949, Con Miller (a merchant and fur- buyer) donned an old red outfit and played Santa Claus for children in the villages surrounding Fairbanks.

By 1952, the Millers had decided to build a trading-post in the area newly named "North Pole". One day, while Con was erecting a wall for the new store, a boy recognised him and said: "Hello, Santa Claus. Are you building a new house?" Before you could say "Donner and Blitzen", the shop was named "Santa Claus House".

North Pole has flourished, with much effort expended to develop it as the place "Where the spirit of Christmas lives year round". Presumably deciding that commerce conquers superstition, rather than taking their mistletoe and tinsel down after Twelfth Night, the mayor's office keeps Christmas decorations up all year round. Street lamps - a necessity since, on the shortest day, there are just three hours and 42 minutes of daylight - on North Pole's Main Street are decorated with candy-cane motifs, and buildings are painted in Christmas colours. Roads bear names such as Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane, Saint Nicholas Drive and Kris Kringle Drive. Those who remember the film Miracle on 34th Street will be familiar with the last name, synonymous in North America with Santa Claus, and thought to derive from the German for Christ Child, Christkindl, which turned into "Kris Kringle" in the New World.

The "Santa Claus House" is still owned by the Miller family, and is one of Alaska's commercial successes. For half a century, their bestseller has been the "Original Letter from Santa" - price $7.50 plus 50c postage. Last Christmas, the store sent out almost 100,000 of these; they come printed on special Santa Claus House stationery, complete with a genuine North Pole postmark, and a special Santa's Official Mail seal. They were posted not just to the States but to, among other places, Japan, China, Russia and South Africa. Another popular gift is "a piece of North Pole": you receive a deed to a square inch of ground in the Terry Miller Memorial Park.

Hoping to interview Santa Claus, I'd checked the store's opening hours (8am-8pm daily) before I visited in August, so was somewhat miffed to find a notice on his chair that read: "Sorry I missed you. I'm here Wednesday-Sunday 11am-8pm. I rest on Monday and Tuesday. Santa Claus." So, no opportunity to have my photo taken with the legend, price $4, or free if you use your own camera. Nor would I receive a free surprise gift, as long as I made a secret wish (look away now if you don't want to know that the gift would have been a candy cane). But I did learn that the current incumbent is a gentleman officially called Kris Kringle: the successful applicant voluntarily changed his name by deed poll seven years ago, when he got the Santa job.

Next door is the Santaland RV Park (RV for "recreational vehicle"). It's hard to miss as a giant Santa stands outside. In 1978, the Miller family bought the fibreglass figure in Seattle for $4,500. It took five years to find a truck company that would bring the 45ft-tall Santa (who weighs half a ton and has a 33ft waist) to Alaska.

This North Pole has one other claim to fame; up a dirt road is the home of its radio station. It may be thousands of miles from the Bible Belt, but KJNP - "King Jesus North Pole" - blasts out the same message. Visitors are welcome to pop in for a free guided tour of the sod-roofed cabin that houses the studios: the staff are all volunteers who get free accommodation for their services. Programmes broadcast via the 430ft-high radio mast tend to be either country gospel music or inspirational talk shows. In Fairbanks, I even heard the station referred to as "50,000 screaming watts of Jesus"...

There are no direct flights between the UK and Fairbanks, but you can fly on British Airways (0870 850 9 850; www.ba.com) to Seattle, continuing on Alaskan Airlines.

Santa Claus House, 101 St Nicholas Drive, North Pole, Alaska (001 907 488 2200; www.santaclaushouse.com)

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