My Vagabond Year: Santa Claus House and Pioneer Park

Just to be absolutely clear - this is NOT THE North Pole, which is about 1,700 miles north of Fairbanks.

This is the town of North Pole which is about 15 miles from Fairbanks,

has a population of approximately 2,000 people and

has a Christmas theme year round. The street lights look like candy canes and

Santa Clause lives here - at Santa Claus House (below).

Santa Claus in casual attire with Mason's children (Kyja, Kade and Koen)
Remember this is mid-July!

Kade, Kyja, Koen and ME

Address: 101 St. Nicholas Road

North Pole, AK 99705

(Any time you would like to have children receive something post marked from the North Pole you can send it to that address and they will post mark it and send it on to the children.)

Pioneer Park is a reconstruction of downtown Fairbanks in the late 1800's/early 1900's.

They have moved the actual houses to this setting and created a tourist attraction.

Most of the houses are occupied by retail shops selling goods made locally.

Of course, there is a museum (actually two - one for the natives and one for the white settlers), a train that takes visitors around the property, and a replica of the gold mining operations that were the reason for

the original Fairbanks settlement.