9 Unusual Places to Experience Christmas Any Time of the Year - Atlas Obscura Lists
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9 Unusual Places to Experience Christmas Any Time of the Year

Gifts that keeps on giving.

by Jonathan Carey, Associate Places Editor
9 Places

The jingle of bells, the red-green-white color scheme, the crunch of frost underfoot. The Christmas spirit really only seems to come alive at one time of the year, when the days approach their shortest length and the gleam of Christmas lights punctuate the glow of early twilight. But, just maybe, it doesn’t have to. There are places across the world to experience holiday cheer year-round. Here are nine places that have captured that joy, from a fully functioning Christmas post office to entire towns dedicated to the season’s most jolly, iconic figure. 

Riga, Latvia

First-Ever Public Christmas Tree Marker

No Christmas setting is complete without a tree, but few know about the first community Christmas tree. This marker, written in six languages, claims to be the site of the first public Christmas tree. It’s said the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, a guild of professional merchants, put a fir tree at this location during the 16th-century for their annual Christmas/New Year’s celebration. It’s believed they decorated the tree with paper flowers, danced around it—and then set it ablaze.
ahvenas Added by ahvenas
Rovaniemi, Finland

Santa Claus' Main Post Office

Staking a claim as “the world’s only official Santa Claus Post Office,” this outpost has been accepting mail and Christmas wishlists since 1985. The unique post office located within the Arctic Circle is open year-round, and is an official part of the Finnish postal service. It has received around 20 million letters from all over the world.
WaKeeney, Kansas

WaKeeney North Pole

No need to travel to the North Pole for this Christmas-themed enclave. Located in a vacant lot, it is a winter wonderland that features murals and sculptures dedicated to the most wonderful time of the year. WaKeeney, Kansas, also happens to be known as “Christmas City of the High Plains.” And when the right time rolls around each year, the town is engulfed in thousands of Christmas lights.
kdishmon27 Added by kdishmon27
North Pole, Alaska

Santa Claus House

Con Miller often dressed as Santa Claus to visit village children in Alaska during the mid-20th-century. When he raised enough money to open a trading post, a child who remembered him in costume asked him if Santa was building a new house. Miller decided to go with it. For more than 60 years, the house has played host to everything Christmas, and has garnered international recognition.
Nicholas Jackson Added by Nicholas Jackson
Mollina, Spain

Museo Internacional de Arte Belenista (International Museum of Nativity Art)

Covering around 50,000 square feet, this museum offers an eclectic journey through 70 nativity scenes, featuring thousands of characters and figurines. Artists such as Antonio Bernal, José Luis Mayo, and Vicente Martínez all contributed their talents to the various dioramas, domes, and scenes, known as pesebres, that fill entire rooms.
richardprice Added by richardprice
Santa Claus, Indiana

Santa Claus, Indiana

Known as “America’s Christmas Hometown,” this small town is filled with joy. When the town became large enough to have its own post office in the 1850s, it applied for the name Sante Fee, which was already taken. As the story goes, while deliberations were taking place on the name—inside a church during the Christmas season—a gust of wind blew the door open. The children inside were surprised and yelled, “Santa Claus!” The name stuck.
Kilgore Trout Added by Kilgore Trout