Discover the Florida Town Where It’s Always Christmas

While many towns in Florida are dressed up for the holidays, there’s one place where it’s Christmas year-round. That place is, quite literally, Christmas. Christmas is a small, unincorporated, census-designated place in Orange County. It isn’t too far from Orlando. 

Where Is Christmas?

Christmas is in the eastern part of Orange County. It’s about a 30-minute drive from downtown Orlando. It takes up a total area of 3.4 miles of land area and has around 2,500 residents. 

What Makes Christmas Special?

Something that makes this small town stand out from others is that it’s quite literally Christmas in Christmas year-round. They have a permanent Christmas tree that stands in town. Most of the residents leave their Christmas decorations up all year. Also, the street signs are Christmas-themed, with names like Reindeer Road and Bethlehem Street.

The post office is in on the fun as well, keeping their decorations up all year as little Christmas trees in the windows. They even have a Letters to Santa mailbox where kids can send their letters off, and receive a response. 

The biggest draw to Christmas is the postmarking that they will do on letters. During the holidays (from December 1-24), the post office will postmark letters “Christmas, Florida” rather than their typical “Orlando, Florida” stamp. Even Santa himself has been known to sit in the lobby, postmarking letters for visitors. 

Fort Christmas

Christmas got its start as a fort for the growing U.S. Army. 2,000 soldiers and volunteers constructed it on Christmas Day, 1837. Since they finished on the 25th, they named it Fort Christmas. Interestingly, when the post office opened in town around 50 years later, it also opened at Christmas.

Fort Christmas didn’t survive to the present day, but the city built a full-size replica of the fort. It preserves seven restored historical homes that show the ‘Cracker’ architecture and early pioneer life. Walking through the homes, you can see scenes of homesteading, hunting, and the cattle industry. The replicas are located within Fort Christmas Historical Park. There is also a school and a post office in the park to show off life in the 19th century.

Swampy and the Jungle Adventures

While it may sound like the name of a backwoods band, Swampy is the name of the building, and Jungle Adventures is the attraction. The 200-foot-long alligator-shaped building that you can walk into at Jungle Adventures is lovingly nicknamed Swampy. Along with the largest alligator in the world (the building, at least), you can also walk through exhibits of Florida panthers, wolves, and other unique creatures!

Christmas may be a small town, but there is so much to do! You’ll have to take a visit to this Florida town that feels like the holidays all year long.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © SEASTOCK/iStock via Getty Images