Saving Santa
🎅 Part 3: A Street Named Santa Claus
Part 1 of this story is here.
For another decade and more, perched atop the old candy store (aka the Date Shop), a weary, aging Santa Claus still smiled to the world, including the passersby on U.S. 101. However, his various parts were failing him. His 3,000-pound jolly charm and 18-foot tall timeworn bones were slipping into a decrepit state, arthritis perhaps, stuck there as he was in his fading, red chimney.
By the late 1990s, impatient developers declared that Santa Claus Lane had become a rundown mess, and they wanted to replace it with a “Cape Cod-style village.” The same 1999 L.A. Times article noted earlier reported that even the wealthy residents of nearby Summerland wanted Santa Claus to go. In 2000, the building he sat on was deemed unsafe by an engineer. Maybe it really was time for him to go.
The mere thought of it triggered an uproar. Nonetheless, Santa was removed from the roof in 2002 and set down in a yard, so that the building under him could be raised. The situation left things in limbo for a time, while those who cared tried to think of what to do with poor Santa. Regional newspapers buzzed with articles and opinion pieces, with plenty of local sentiment in favor of Mr. Claus.
The curator of the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History, David Griggs, joined the campaign to save Santa. He was quoted in the same the article:
Santa is a classic example of roadside architecture. It’s a piece of Americana. It’s mid-20th century architecture which only happened in America.
Believe it or not, even Jon Stewart of the Daily Show stepped into the fray, including an interview with Santa himself. Thirty seconds into the video, there’s a shot of the old white building with the big windows that housed my grandparents’ shop, Santa’s Trading Post. My family lived in the back of that building when I was five and six years old. I can still see myself standing out front devouring a giant wad of cotton candy.
By January 2003, a solution had emerged, thanks in part to the help of the Pearl Chase Society, a nonprofit historic preservation group based in Santa Barbara. Santa was getting a new home in Oxnard, thirty miles down the coast. The owner of an apparently dried up water well site in the community of Nyeland Acres offered up a small lot adjacent to U.S. 101 for Santa’s comfy retirement.
Santa was shrink-wrapped, lifted by a crane onto a donated flatbed truck and driven to Oxnard. The big man and his entourage enjoyed an official police escort. At one point in Ventura, a low bridge presented an obstacle, but not to worry. Santa was lifted off the truck and pushed on rollers to clear the obstruction. Lacking a suitable sleigh operating at light-speed, the thirty-mile trip took four hours.
The president of the water company and iron worker, Mike Barber, led a host of volunteers in preparing the site, restoring Santa with new stucco and paint, welding up the iron fence, and planting the landscaping, among other tasks. A celebration to dedicate St. Nick’s new home, now called Santa Park, was held on November 28, 2003. Warmed by such a life-altering experience, Barber would continue looking after Santa for years to come.
In 2008, the site became the starting line for the annual Santa to the Sea Half Marathon and 5K Run held over the Christmas holidays. (The 2023 race was held December 10th.) The event has attracted numerous celebrities over the years and has raised over a million dollars for scholarships. Coupled with an annual toy drive, the event directly benefits thousands of disadvantaged kids, many of them low-income residents of Nyeland Acres.
Two summers ago, my wife, Kris, and I were passing through Southern California on a road trip. We navigated to Mr. Santa next to the Ventura Highway. Kris seemed vaguely tickled at my childhood association with ol’ St. Nick. Accompanied by a snowman, reindeer and a couple of nutcrackers, the big man looked well cared for behind his shiny green iron fence--and also pretty dapper wearing his summertime sunglasses. I discovered later that the glasses are regularly swapped out for untinted ones in November when Daylight Saving Time ends.
Kris and I continued on to our campsite at the state park in Carpinteria. We briefly checked out my old grade school, stopped in at the history museum, and took a short walk along Santa Claus Lane. The place looked a little sterile, of course, without Santa in the mix, but my grandmother’s shop was still standing and little changed, other than the fact it had been converted to a surf shop a number of years before.
Amazingly, they never changed the name of Santa Claus Lane, nor the exit signs from U.S. 101. That’s not to say people haven’t tried. Some find it silly, others value the history or the quirkiness of it and prefer that it stay just the way it is. Obviously, I’m in the latter camp. Regardless, I’m sure there are plenty of drivers (and kids) today who find the name rather odd in such a seemingly random place.
The memories of Santa Claus Lane have remained with me always. At the time, I thought I was living just a normal life for a first-grader. Christmas all year? Of course! But the memories reside with a few mysteries as well. Like the miniature train engineer. I never knew who he really was. He seemed to materialize out of thin air one moment to drive the train, then disappear the next—just like cotton candy. And the Ghost? Why was it the only caboose that glowed in the dark when it sped by?
And about that Reindeer Room inside Santa’s Kitchen next door. They said kids were not allowed to go in. I guess it was for grownups only, which I couldn’t understand. What could be so bad about going to visit the reindeer in their very own room? Next time I find such a place, I think I’ll march right inside.
Like I own the place.
🎅 You can watch the Jon Stewart segment here (then scroll down).
🎅 A nice article with great photos of Santa’s move to Nyeland Acres can be found here.
🎅 To see the big man himself, take the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101) to Exit 60. Santa Park is just to the east of the exit on the north side, next to Ventura Boulevard.
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