A short weekend trip was in order so Indiana was the place to go. And there was apparently a Krampus Night Festival in Bloomington at the Indiana University Bloomington so that was the place where we decided to go. It was only a Friday to Sunday trip but it was fun to see random things in Southern Indiana.
Keep on reading for my day-by-day adventures!
Day 1, December 2: Santa Claus, Indiana
The first stop on Friday was Santa Claus, Indiana. It’s the home of Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, but that was not in operation when one goes in December. Instead, I went to see all the Christmassy attractions! However, there were few attractions to see and I didn’t think it was worth the drive. There’s a few Christmas stores to go to, with things to pose with and there is the Santa Claus Museum and Village that I went to. The fun thing about this town is that the post office is named Santa Claus and has a influx of mail during the holidays. Basically it’s a super small town (less than 3000 people) that has a post office named Santa Claus and some Christmas themed shops.
Day 1, December 3: Jasper to Bloomington
The town of Jasper, 20 miles north of Santa Claus, was just as exciting (or lack thereof) as Santa Claus. At least Jasper has about 15,000 people living in the town. I checked out the Jasper City Mill, which included a tour of the mill, being able to watch the water wheel and corn meal production and then shop in the tiny shop. I did want to see the giant 14 foot popcorn tub in the middle of the parking lot of Jasper Gift Basket and Popcorn Company. I didn’t even buy anything there, but looked around the shop and then posed with the popcorn tub. I did have to go to Zaharakos, which was named the best ice cream in the state! Th opened almost 120 years ago and still serve homemade sodas and sundaes. They even make home made syrup and service the ice cream with paper straws! They had a little gift shop but all I ended up buying were some postcards.
The main reason for this trip was the Krampus festival held by Indiana University Bloomington. Do you even know about Krampus? He’s the half goat-half demon type being that punishes misbehaving children around Christmastime. It’s Central European folklore, but still, it makes getting coal in your stocking a lot less terrible than having this Devil of a being either bag you and take you to Hell, eat you, or drown you. So basically this was a parade of a bunch of people dressed up at Krampuses. I think someone had listened to a podcast about Krampus, it mentioned the festival and Bloomington, and that’s how I ended up in Bloomington. And that someone was not me. I do not listen to podcasts about Krampus and then want to go visit some random festival.
Day 3, December 4: Lincoln’s Boyhome
I was actually pretty excited to stop by Lincoln City, IN to see Lincoln’s Boyhood National Memorial. It’s the farm where Lincoln lived between the ages of 7 to 21. So actually, a significant part of Lincoln’s growing up/childhood occurred in Indiana and I don’t think that’s mentioned enough. I haven’t been to Lincoln’s birthplace but it’s on my list of places to go. Mainly because I grew up in Springfield, IL, the land of Lincoln. I’ve been to his Presidential Library, seen the Rail Splitter Statute of him, been to his Home of 17 years (the only one he ever owned), been to the Lincoln Depot train station, been to New Salem, the village where he lived as a young man and where he clerked int eh store, as well as his tomb. So it was exciting to see his boyhood home in Indiana. Now I just need to make it to Kentucky.
All good trips have an end, and my time in Greece had come to an end. Even though it was just a short weekend trip, it was fun to get into the spirit of Christmas. I’m glad we don’t believe in Krampus here in the US and I really enjoyed Lincoln’s boyhood home. But now it’s time to go home and start another week of work before Christmas is actually before us!