Although the Christmas is celebrated all round there are few places that pour in as much time, effort and money as the United States.
And it has paid off, with many popular features of the winter holiday from Christmas lights to the jolly red Santa Claus finding their origins in North America.
It also provides a big boost to the US economy. Holiday retail sales are forecast to exceed about $940 billion (£760bn) this year, a steady year on year rise.
With so much energy going into Christmas its no surprise that there will be many trying to take advantage of it.
Some successfully and some not so much…
And its one of these failed enterprises that’s led to the town of Santa Claus, Arizona, abandoned and left to rot in the middle of a desert.
Built in the 1930s, it was the doomed attempt of real-estate agent Nina Talbott and her husband to cash in on the Christmas hype.
Hoping to exploit the niche segment of the population who wanted to celebrate the holiday all year round they built the town from scratch.
Their hope was to build a resort town in the middle of the desert, centred around a number of Christmas themed attractions.
There was a post office so people could send letters from Santa Claus, the Christmas Tree Inn and Santa’s Workshop, all bringing tourists into the town.
It takes a formidable person to found a town and Nina certainly was one. She often described herself as the biggest real-estate agent in California but that was likely down to her impressive 300lbs physique.
By 1942 the town had become a tourist destination but the draw of a Christmas themed town wasn’t enough for people to move to the area.
By 1949 Nina sold up but it still drew in the odd visitor, helped in part by its proximity to the historic Route 66.
Over the next 30 years, the town’s fortunes dwindled.
People voted with their wallets and it turns out a Christmas themed town in the middle of the desert was a non-starter.
By the mid-1970s the town had pretty much closed and in the early 80s the then-owner Tony Wilcox unsuccessfully tried to sell it.
A gift-shop limped on in the town until 1995 but when that closed the whole area was left to the ghosts.
It was taken off Arizona state maps and all post sent to the Santa Claus post office was rerouted to Santa Claus, Indiana, another Christmas themed town.
Now all that’s left is the abandoned remains of resort buildings.
Faded elves and Santa’s face peer out from the surviving murals but the tourists are long gone.
In 100 years the buildings will likely have rotted back into the desert. But until then they’ll stand as a reminder that Americans’ love of the holidays only goes so far.
