Santa Claus, Georgia
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1957 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Vidalia-Lyons census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30436. The Survey maps it on the Lyons quadrangle. 204 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 236 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSanta Claus grew from 165 to 204 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 165 | |
| 2020 | 204 | +39 (+24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1957 USGS Macon quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Macon quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Macon quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1970 USGS Lyons quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1979 USGS Vidalia quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1988 USGS Macon quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
521 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 521 fires within 5 miles of Santa Claus between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,238 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 94 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 269 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 94 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 63 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 21 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 20 |
| Smoking | 18 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 September 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.4 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.1 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2012-TOOMBS-012 |
| 3 September 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 20 September 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 2 September 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.5 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 18 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2019TOOMBS004 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Claus in 6 storm reports between 2009 and 2024: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2012 | Flash Flood | Santa Claus | $15,000 | Several private ponds overflowed and washed out a few secondary dirt roads 1 to 2 miles east of Santa Claus. A pond overflowed and caused erosion damage to Ben Roy McLeandon Road. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $1,000 | The Toombs County 911 Center reported that a couple of trees and a road sign were down around Lyons. |
| February 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $1,000 | The Toombs County 911 Center reported that three trees were knocked down by thunderstorm winds. One of the trees fell on and brought down a power line. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | - | Recorded at uga weather network Vidalia Site. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | The Toombs County 911 Center observed quarter-sized hail near Lyons. |
| February 2009 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | The public observed penny-sized hail near Lyons. Radar supported that hail of similar size likely fell from south of Lyons near Santa Claus to south of Ohoopee. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyons | 2.3 miles | 10 | |
| Ponderosa | 4.4 miles | 10 | |
| Center | 4.6 miles | 9 | |
| South Thompson | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Vidalia | 5.4 miles | 9 | |
| Ohoopee | 6.0 miles | 9 | |
| Charles | 6.2 miles | 9 | |
| Elton (historical) | 7.4 miles | 9 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Santa Claus | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2444199 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 322506. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





