Santa Claus, Indiana
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Carter Township. It lies in ZIP code area 47579. The Survey maps it on the Santa Claus quadrangle. 2,586 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 463 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSanta Claus grew from 2,481 to 2,586 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 | 2,481 | |
| 2020 | 2,586 | +105 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 15 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.
- 1900 USGS St Meinrad quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS St Meinrad quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS St. Meinrad quadrangle1:62500
- 1956 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Claus quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1986 USGS Jasper quadrangle1:100000
- 1994 USGS Jasper quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Santa Claus in 2018, burning under an acre in total. 1 started naturally. None was 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 April 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial | DRACH |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
23 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Claus in 23 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 13 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $30,000 | A fence and an outdoor building were blown over. Several trees and power lines were down. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Santa Claus | $10,000 | Several inches of water flowed through a campground in Santa Claus. Roads were flooded in the northern part of the county, including County Road 1600 North near Santa Claus and Monte Casino Road north of St. Meinrad. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $10,000 | Tree damage was reported between Santa Claus and Dale. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $5,000 | Trees were snapped and uprooted. |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $2,000 | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated near 60 MPH downed numerous small branches. |
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $1,000 | About six miles east of Santa Claus, several tree limbs were down, some as large as six inches in diameter. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $1,000 | A tree was blown down. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | $1,000 | A trained spotter estimated wind gusts from 50 to 60 mph with small tree limbs down. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | Golf ball sized hail fell between the towns of Fulda and New Boston. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | There were also wind gusts estimated near 50 mph. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Santa Claus | - | A rainfall amount of 2.25 inches was reported. Most of this rain fell within five hours. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | - | A wind gust was estimated near 60 mph by the public. |
| March 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | - | Trees were blown down blocking several streets just west of Santa Claus. |
| July 2009 | Flash Flood | Santa Claus | - | Numerous roads were underwater in the north half of the county, including Dale, St. Meinrad, and Santa Claus. Two water rescues were conducted. Spotters reported nearly three inches of rain had fallen before flash flooding even began. |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | - | Estimated by trained spotter. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | Quarter to half dollar size hail fell. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | Tennis-ball size hail fell across from the Holiday World amusement park. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Santa Claus | - | no account filed |
| March 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Santa Claus | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Fe | 0.6 miles | 15 | |
| Kennedy | 2.7 miles | 15 | |
| Buffaloville | 3.1 miles | 15 | |
| Mariah Hill | 3.2 miles | 14 | |
| Clay City | 3.3 miles | 15 | |
| Lamar | 3.5 miles | 15 | |
| Fulda | 4.2 miles | 15 | |
| Lincoln City | 4.5 miles | 15 |
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 Q1856420 | 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 449729. 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.








