Merry Christmas!!!

don't look back.....

Santa Claus Lane played an important role in the Carpinteria Valley’s agricultural beginnings. This is significant because the area surrounding Santa Claus Lane hasn’t changed that much in the last fifty years thanks to agriculture. That simple fact makes it a pleasure to live here. The pleasure will turn to pain if we continue to over-develop and jam in too many people! The BIG URBAN BANG hasn’t hit us…yet.....

Thank Goodness for Agriculture!

The half-mile strip containing Santa’s Village was originally part of a Lima bean farm along the ocean side of the old three-lane highway. The owner, E.T. Auger, built a small juice stand there. The McKeon family bought the property in 1948. Needing an advertising theme, Patrick McKeon named the stand Santa Claus to conform with other nearby Santas like Santa Barbara and Santa Maria and used the theme to attract passing motorists. Brilliant idea!

During their first Christmas on the lane, his wife June dressed up as Santa and waved travelers to the juice stand (the good old days). June also invented the Big Yellow House in Summerland!She was a big, loud, no-nonsense yet kind woman. The next Christmas, a passing motorist with five children, no money and low on gas stopped at the stand. For $500, he offered to build a Santa Claus on the roof of the juice stand. His offer was accepted and a monument made out of chicken wire and plaster would soon rise from the lima bean fields like a demented Phoenix!

The large Santa grew out of the chimney, wired with a loudspeaker to call out to passing motorists "Welcome to Santa Claus!" People were much looser then and not as anal as they are today!
*A western novelty shop was added in 1951, a pottery shop in 1953, and a café known as Santa’s Kitchen in 1954. A post office substation was established in the date shop where mail could be stamped "Santa Claus, California". In 1954, a four lane divided highway was built and the old coast highway became Santa Claus Lane. The area prospered as a thriving commercial enterprise until the 1970s when tastes changed and fewer travelers stopped on the lane. Many of the Santa themes and associated tourist attractions were removed, and the trend toward remodeling the lane in a Nantucket motif developed. Today, Santa Claus stands as one of the last reminders of Santa Claus Village.
The Santa Claus figure is a rare regional example of 1940’s roadside programmatic architecture. Automobile travel at the time, fostered by the construction of better highways, required the development of large, eye-catching roadside images that could be understood by a speeding motorist....
 

not any more....but development on the Lane has been held to a minimum...it's still a fun and funky place to spend some time..California casual 1950s style..