Birthplace of the Peppermint Pattie.
"Nice around here, isn't it? I call it Christmas Town."
— Sam Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
At the top of the world, where the Northern Lights dance in the heavens, Snowy Sleigh Bells can be heard in the distance and polar bears drinking Coca-Cola, there resides a cute little cottage where a jolly man, whose belly shakes like a bowl full of jelly, resides. Where his helpers, ranging from toy-making elves to his flying reindeer, his Italian donkey, a racist caricature, a child-eating demon in chains and host of other easily marketable icons reside.
Christmas Town, also known as Santa's Workshop or simply the North Pole, is the domain of Santa Claus and his many helpers. It's a place where it's Christmas Every Day. It is where the toys are made to be given to the children of the world, the reindeer are kept and cared for, the sleigh kept properly lubed and buffed, many radio stations that play Christmas Songs all year round, a cocoa/eggnog pub and an industrial strength cookie bakery that keeps Santa's insatiable hunger for cookies at bay.
As Technology Marches On and the world population grows, interpretations of what this place is like changes too. Computer systems to simplify the naughty and nice lists, assembly lines to streamline the process, engines on the sleigh and molten cauldrons full of melted plastic to be molded into the latest Optimus Prime.
If the workshop is run by Badass Santa, then expect the place to be a fortified fortress full of jolly toe-missiles, Christmas ornaments with lit fuses and a vault full of dangerous toys to be used to fend off whatever means their mission harm.
If the workshop is an absolute hell to work in, then it's Santa's Sweatshop. If Christmas Town is featured as a level in a video game, it is always a Sub-Trope to Slippy-Slidey Ice World. If it isn't Christmas yet and you want to see another holiday world, go visit Halloween Town.
Related to Polar Bears and Penguins.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey mostly takes place in Christmas Town, as a mishap with a holiday portal sends Zero there. We get to see more of the town and its culture as Zero tries to find his way back to Halloween Town.
Comic Books
- In the Barbarella universe, the planet Christmas was settled as a yule-themed family-friendly resort, ruled by the benevolent Niklaus von Klaus. Unfortunately, it was founded in a lawless area of space, and thus its visitors consist mainly of criminals who come to the planet to conduct business. Klaus decided to roll with it, letting the criminals conduct business in his village, but subject to extremely strict rules against violence.
Films — Animation
- The North Pole in Arthur Christmas is portrayed as a facsimile of a modern day factory and bunker. The North Pole holds the underground command centre of all Christmas. There are elf homes, the Clause living quarters, an S-1 dock, and a big command centre where Steve runs the Christmas operation (complete with millions of elves at the helm making a list and checking it twice).
- Christmas Town is the second holiday realm featured in The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is portrayed as a bright and colorful town covered in snow and populated by elves. The area includes indoor toy factories where elves work, Santa Claus's home, living spaces where the elves live, a carousel, bakeries and a train. The protagonist Jack Skellington accidentally happens upon this world when he finds the Hinterlands outside the borders of Halloween Town and finds a door shaped like a Christmas tree he is literally pulled into. It is likely that Christmas Town has its own set of doors, as Jack, Lock, Shock and Barrel were able to return to Halloween Town with no trouble.
- In The Polar Express, the titular train bringing children to the North Pole is depicted this way. There's a huge factory for processing toys prior to delivery, as well as a surveillance system to catch naughty children.
- North's workshop in Rise of the Guardians is a gigantic Russian palace located in the North Pole. The workshop also acts as the Guardians' headquarters and has tough security that Jack Frost has tried and failed to infiltrate.
- In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1998), the North Pole provides human-sized houses and a schoolroom for its intelligent reindeer. There's also a greenhouse, mail-delivering sleighs, and a factory floor so happy that its workers regularly sing.
Films — Live-Action
- The North Pole is a central location in all three The Santa Clause films. It is a large metropolis populated by child-like elves and flying reindeer. It is all owned by the current Santa Claus (in the film's case, Scott Calvin) and acts as a meeting place for other iconic magical beings (Mother Nature, Father Time, Jack Frost, etc).
Literature
- The Day Santa Stopped Believing In Harold: We get to see Santa's cottage and the "computer gizmo department" where Merpin the elf works.
- The Hogfather's Castle of Bones is the Discworld version. It got its name when the Hogfather delivered pork products rather than toys, but is actually made of ancient ice, vaguely shaped like bones. When it appears in Hogfather it's temporarily abandoned, but under normal circumstances, it's supposed to be a blaze of light and noise, as well as having "jolly little buggers in pointy hats and red and green suits, hitting wooden toys unconvincingly yet rythmically with hammers".
- Terry Pratchett questioned the traditional portrayal in his talk/essay "Alien Christmas", where he pointed out that, given the toys kids are actually given at Christmas, Santa's workshop is generally shown with a surprising lack of plastic extrusion machines and soldering irons. His theory: a wormhole above the North Pole results in an alien Santa providing Earth children with Transformers and Zoids, while our Santa is likewise sending all his wooden soldiers and suchlike to bewildered alien kids.
Theme Parks
- Busch Gardens uses the exact title and theme for its yearly holiday event, held at both its Tampa FL and Williamsburg VA locations.
- The Winter Summerland minigolf course at Walt Disney World is themed as a vacation retreat for Santa and the elves.
Video Games
- Rickety Town is a fairground in the center of CarnEvil, located between the Big Top and the Freak Show. The player explores most of the rides and attractions here, the only exception being a rocket next to the snowglobe ice rink. While the level is presented as a Christmas-themed theme park, the game's setting is presented as a Circus of Fear, so the trope is Played for Horror, including a monstrous Bad Santa/The Krampus boss battle on a skating-rink.
- In EverQuest II, the Village of Frostfellnote is an alternate dimension that becomes accessible to non-Frostfell-related beings only around the month of December. It's a frozen lagoon dotted with islands which are in turn dotted with evergreen trees, multicolored faerie-lights, and random presents full of materials for in-game crafting. Small elves and flying reindeer run around as well.
- Christmas Broadcasting is the first level in Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, a Christmas-themed Slippy-Slidey Ice World. The level takes place in the North Pole based on shows and films that are traditionally shown during Christmas or otherwise based around it (hence its name), such as those made by Rankin/Bass.
- Christmas Town in Kingdom Hearts II is only accessible through a door in the Halloween Town world. Much like Halloween Town, Christmas Town is overrun with Heartless (albeit by Christmas-themed versions of Halloween Town's Heartless), and while Santa Claus is sweet and polite to Sora and his gang, he still holds a chip on his shoulder towards Jack Skellington after he tried stealing Christmas the first time. This is taken further in this game's Final Mix, where Sora, Donald, and Goofy wear Christmas themed outfits while in the world, in contrast to their getup while in Halloween Town, all while a Christmas-y tune plays in the background.
- It's not particularly drawn attention to, but Hollijolli Village in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is snowy, brightly decorated, all the Toad houses contain trees and piles of presents, and the mayor is a white-bearded Toad in a red suit with white trim and hides from the Shroobs in his chimney. It doesn't appear to be Christmas anywhere else, so it seems that's just what Hollijolli Village is like.
- Christmas Town is one of the final levels in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, Oogie Boogie having invaded it with his army of monsters in the hopes of killing Santa and taking over Christmas, succeeding in becoming the Seven Holidays King.
- Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! has Demonland, a Christmas-themed Amusement Park of Doom.
- Ragnarok Online: Lutie is a town describes as being in an eternal Christmas, being a snowy place full of Christmas decorations. This is a town with NPCs like Santa and a talking snowman, and can only be accessed by talking with Mr. Claus on the city of Al De Baran. The city has the Toy Factory dungeon, a dungeon with monsters like giant living Christmas presents, small helping elves, and a Rudolph-inspired boss, the Stormy Knight.
- Reine from Them's Fightin' Herds is a downplayed version. Sure there's no candy canes on every corner and no Santa equivalent seen but it's a snow covered town mostly populated by reindeer, who have little elf-like servants called Winter Sprites, and they have a mysterious ritual where eight elite deer (all named after Santa's reindeer) pull a sleigh through the sky once a year. The city looks a lot more like a tradition Christmas town visually in holiday updates.
- In Twisted Metal 3, the North Pole is the fourth stage, consisting of Santa's home in a large circular trench surrounded by mostly Christmas related decorum.
- Calypso: "You do believe in Santa, don't you? Let's say you drop by, and put the fat guy out of business for good! Watch out for that... missile-toe."
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: This is Played for Horror. SCP-784 – Christmas Cheer
is a town somewhere in Texas, that is decorated with Christmas all year round regardless of the weather. It is an anomalous location where the inhabitants are Ambiguously Human and assimilate those who do not exhibit the right level of Christmas cheer. This includes things as minor as wishing someone "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas", singing the wrong lyrics to a carol, or not showing enough enthusiasm for a gift.
- Stampy's Lovely World: The North Pole, Santa's place of residence and where Polly Reindeer hails from. Stampy visits this place in Episode 367, "North Pole" and Episode 686, "Santa's Surprise".
Western Animation
- Santa's Toy Factory from the Codename: Kids Next Door Christmas Episode "Operation: N.A.U.G.H.T.Y." is at first portrayed as the traditional Santa's workshop, with jolly elves singing as they hand-craft toys in a log cabin. It is revealed later that a lot of the process has been automated and modernized, the sleigh and reindeer replaced with a teleportation system that instantly sends the toys to their homes, Santa the only person strong enough to withstand the strain it causes.
- Dad'X: Exaggerated in the form of Christmas Planet, where Dad'X, the elves, his reindeer, and even his Arch-Enemy Foudror reside. The good guys live in the planet's North Pole, which is more snowy and covered in Christmas decorations, while Foudror's abode in the South Pole is more dark and ominous.
- Stinky Cigars from How Murray Saved Christmas. Not only is it the site of Santa's workshop, it's also where all the other holiday mascots live, including Murray, who used to represent National Milkman Day.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): The Trope Namer, and one of the codifiers for visual media, establishing many of the physical aspects of the place (snowy, always Christmas, etc.)
- In the DuckTales (2017) episode "How Santa Stole Christmas!", flashbacks show Scrooge and Santa meeting in a wintery town whose residents resemble Christmas Elves even before they reveal their pointy ears. Once Santa outlines his plans to give toys around the world on Christmas, they naturally volunteer to help.
Real Life
- There is a real life Christmas Town; the northern Finnish town of Rovaniemi, which is practically on the Arctic Circle, claims to be the home of Santa Claus and maintains a thriving winter holiday trade on this assertion. A dedicated Santa Claus Town just outside Rovaniemi was established to serve the winter tourist trade.
- North Pole Colorado Santa's Workshop is a Christmas-themed amusement park located in Cascade, Colorado. It has been open since 1956 and has been open year-round ever since.
- There's another one in Lake Placid, NY.
- There's another one
- Frankenmuth, Michigan isn't exclusively about Christmas (some of its festivals are about its Bavarian heritage), but it is known for Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, touted as the "World's Largest Christmas Store".
- The town of North Pole, Alaska is where the United States Postal Service delivers all letters mailed to Santa, which the town's sixth-graders are encouraged to reply to. Naturally, the town is heavily Christmas-themed; street lamps are designed to look like candy canes, many local businesses are decorated similarly, street names include Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane, and Kris Kringle Drive, the local Roller Derby team is called the Babes in Toyland, and in 2004, the mayor sent a lump of coal to Senator John McCain when he criticized what he felt to be a "pork barrel" government project in the town. On a darker note, there was also a foiled school shooting plot in 2006 by a group of 13-year-olds who allegedly went mad from living in a town where it was Christmas all the time, which became the subject of the Jon Ronson documentary Death in Santaland.
- There is a town in Indiana named Santa Claus, so named because they couldn't name it Santa Fe as there was already a Santa Fe in Indiana. The town is home to various Christmas-themed attractions, such as a Santa Claus Town and the Holiday World theme park (known as Santa Claus Land from 1946 until 1984, when Halloween and 4th of July lands were added).