CHRISTMAS

Region: Pictured Rocks/Munising/Au Train

Alger County's first town, Onota, was built around Bay Furnace west of today's Christmas. But it was destroyed by fire in 1877. Fifty-two years later, Christmas, an unincorporated area with a few motels and resorts, was given its name by state conservation officer-turned-entrepreneur Julius Thorsen. His Christmas Industries shop, constructed in 1939, made a very limited product line—doilies and rugs, for instance—before it burned down in 1940, vanquishing Thorsen's dreams of creating an extensive tourist complex. The name survived. Souvenir shops and roadside Santas and reindeer, cut out of plywood, sprang up along the highway.
Roadside Santas live on in front of souvenir shops. SANTA'S WORKSHOP (906-387-2929; santas-workshop-christmas.com) claims to have the world's tallest Santa, the world's tallest Old Woman in the Shoe, and the world's largest concrete Frosty the Snowman. The shop itself has a very wide variety of Christmas items, some locally made "by the lesser Elf." Some such as Jim Shore's folk-art inspired figurines, are quite striking. On Sundays from 2 to 7, April through November, children might possibly meet Santa face-to-face to tell him how good they have been and put in requests for Christmas gifts. Letters come from post office by the box load for the special "Christmas" postmark.

An imposing log KEWADIN CASINO CHRISTMAS (906-387-5475) is on M-28 west of the gift stores. It's a branch of the five-casino empire of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Right on the highway, open daily year-round from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m., it has a snack bar that's a handy pit stop. Ages 19 and up. The 48-room hotel next door is now the White Pine Lodge (906-387-1111).

Return to Pictured Rocks/Munising/Au Train

PLACES AROUND CHRISTMAS TO

Eat Sleep Camp