By 1952, others had joined them with the promise of electrical power.
What to call this new town? Someone came up with the idea of "North Pole" thinking it might attract toy manufacturers with the lure of a "made in North Pole" logo. Although that idea didn't pan out, the notion that a Disney-like Santa town might spring up did.
Today, tourists flock to North Pole, and letters by the thousands arrive for Santa from all over the world. When a Catholic parish was established in 1975, it was natural that it be named Saint Nicholas.
Keeping Christmas Special
Lisa Sagers is the parish youth worker. Unlike Father Fath, who is a lifelong Alaskan, Sagers came to the Christmas capital of the world from Los Angeles 10 years ago.
When she phones colleagues in the Lower-48 and identifies herself as being from St. Nicholas in North Pole, she laughs when people say, "You're kidding, right?"
She finds some aspects of her adopted home "quaint" and marvels at the fact that a local man legally changed his name to Kris Kringle.
But she admires the way Father Fath manages to make Christmas special in a town that sometimes grows weary of the spectacle.
"Father Robert has been amazing. His family had so many rich traditions and he's able to share these with our youth," Sagers said. "At St. Nicholas, we understand when the tree and the lights should go up."
Heart of Christmas
Father Fath has a very young parish with 500 youth under age 18. He enjoys telling them stories about the real Saint Nicholas, while emphasizing that we "anticipate the gift of Christ, not toys."
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Father Fath makes sure the children know the history of the famous saint - a man who never lived in the North Pole.
"I like to emphasize that Saint Nicholas was really from Turkey," Father Fath said.
On the Sunday nearest the Dec. 6 Feast of Saint Nicholas, children in faith formation classes put their shoes outside their classroom doors to be filled with candy. But even this is part of an older European custom celebrating Saint Nicholas, not Santa.
Father Fath then celebrates Mass and speaks of the real man, instead of the one smothered in cultural kitsch.
He also points to the charitable works that the parish does during Advent and the way parishioners, especially the youth, focus on giving. Food collections and adoptions of needy families fill the weeks before Christmas.
Letters to Santa