These North Pole Houses Are for Sale, and the Town Really Is Christmas-Themed

Every year, kids write letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole. But did you know you could actually live there? No, the northernmost point of the Earth is not habitable to humans, but there’s another North Pole, a city in Alaska, that’s not just livable—it even has homes for sale right now.

North Pole, Alaska doesn’t just share a name with Santa’s fabled hometown. It leans into its name so much, its town motto is “Where the sprit of Christmas lives year ‘round.” The four-square-mile town has a population just over 2,000, and its post office really does collect the letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole. (You can even have your letter to your kids from “Santa” postmarked from the North Pole—the North Pole USPS website tells you how.)

Several streets in the town have Christmas-themed names, like Santa Claus Lane, Kris Kringle Drive, St. Nicholas Drive, and Snowman Lane. Street lights are painted to look like candy canes, and of course, during the holiday season, the town holds a winter festival.

For extreme Christmas-lovers, this sounds like the perfect place to live. The Christmas-themed attractions aren’t the only draw, either. North Pole also has the lowest real-estate prices in Alaska. 

Real estate site The Real Deal compiled a list of five of the most expensive homes currently available in North Pole on Zillow, and it tops out at $485,000 for a picturesque three-bedroom log-cabin-style house. A similar house (located on a street called Polar Fox Loop!) costs $399,900.

Moving to North Pole, Alaska would be a major commitment. Average low temperatures are below zero for five months of the year, and the record low is -67 degrees Farenheit. Still, it’s cozy compared to the geographic North Pole, where ice shifts too much for people to settle down there.

If you’re not ready to move all the way to North Pole, you can always just visit. The town is only 20 minutes away from Fairbanks.