A Trip to Santa Claus, Indiana

Welcome to Santa Claus, Indiana! 

My parents grew up not far from here and have a house here.  I have always wanted to take the kids up to Santa Claus, Indiana at Christmas time and I made it happen this year.  We had a free Saturday and my parent would be at their house in Christmas Lake.  Perfect!  I had our elves help me with the surprise road trip.

The kids found them waiting on our van Saturday morning with a cute Christmas Stitch stuffed animal for each kid.  They were so excited!

We hopped in the car and made the quick 45 minute trip to my parent's house at Christmas Lake.  Their new patio has a prefect view of the lake.

Their house is decorated for Christmas year round up there.

The rain stayed away and it ended up being a perfect day.

We did a lot of fossil hunting, hide and seek and then we headed out to do some Christmas fun.

Santa's Candy Castle was awesome!  There is no charge to get in.  There are rooms and rooms full of candy.  There is a PEZ room when you walk in and then you can find everything from Jelly Belly jelly beans to Reindeer Snot slime.  You make your way through the rooms of candy and then the final room is the check out area and specialty made foods.  There is fudge and candy and FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE.  You can also get souvenirs like ornaments, shirts and more.

The kids loved seeing all the candy and picking out one to bring home.

We shared a frozen hot chocolate. It was delicious!

There are Santa photo ops all over the place.

Next, we went to the Santa Museum, post office, church and more.  There is no entrance fee and you just go at your own pace.  They have tons of holiday things happening in the month of December so be sure to check out the schedule online.

The vintage trains were a favorite.  They have buttons all around so that the kids can control the sounds and drive the trains.  It was such a neat display.  You can see Santa at the museum for free. He seemed wonderful and you snap your own pictures.  We'll go here next year for that.

The boys loved all the photo spots.

You can write letters to Santa and he'll write you back.  There are ladies there to help make sure you get Santa's information correct.  Leo was the only one who wanted to write to Santa here.

We all loved the museum, the history and the murals.

Fletcher loved spotting The Grinch!  This restaurant had a whole Grinch section.

There were food trucks set up and we got to enjoy Ben's pretzels.

We all had such a fun Christmasy day!  It's definitely worth the drive for the day.  There are light displays and shows at night and cabins to stay for longer.  We are already looking forward to going back next year.  We want to try the pizza places and the Santa brewery.