SANTA CLAUS, Ga. -- It was 30 minutes until the town Christmas party and Santa was nowhere to be found.
Could this be? Santa got his signals crossed in the town that bears his name?
Santa Claus Mayor Bernard Harden quickly contacted portly resident John Mixon, who was staying with his father next door to the town hall, and asked him to fill in for the big guy in red.
"If the suit fits, I'll do it," 34-year-old Mr. Mixon told the mayor the night of the Dec. 15 party.
Fifteen minutes later Mr. Mixon, dressed in the traditional red and white outfit, was pulling wide-eyed children into his ample lap and listening to their Christmas dreams.
Cameras flashed, and mamas and grandmas urged the reluctant little ones to approach the Santa they've been talking about all year.
"It went better than I thought it would," Mr. Mixon said the day after the party. "I've never done anything like that before."
For a first-timer, Mr. Mixon was adept at dodging the request for a machine gun and not breaking into laughter when one little girl asked for a bulldog "with one green eye and one blue eye."
St. Nick's appearance at the annual Christmas party, usually performed by an elderly man who had a sudden out-of-town engagement, is part of a tradition that goes back nine years in this tiny hamlet -- population 250.
"Once you start something in a town this small, you can't hardly quit," Mr. Harden quipped.
Situated just south of Vidalia and Lyons, Santa Claus looks more like a subdivision than a town. One-story brick houses are strung together in neat rows, like so many colored Christmas lights that twinkle from the rooftops.
Despite its size, the town is incorporated, with its own mayor, City Council and water system. Children attend Toombs County schools. Residents use the Lyons Post Office. To see a movie, they must make the 5-mile trek to Vidalia.
Founded in 1941, Santa Claus got its name from Calvin Greene, a country store owner everyone called Farmer Greene. He stocked up on Christmas goods and novelty items for tourists stopping in this stretch of Georgia.
When the town got its charter, Mr. Greene became the first mayor and named it Santa Claus.
"I guess the name just stuck," Mayor Harden said. The Christmas theme filters through the town's streets, which bear names such as Dasher, Dancer, Jingle Bells and December.
And Santa Claus residents go all out for the one holiday of the year that puts them on the map. They drape the towns in lights -- red ones, white ones, ones that blink and one that sing -- across rooftops, bushes, trees, fences and porch swings. They erect elaborate nativity scenes, as well as scenes that look like Hallmark cards.
And Santa? Well, he pops up just about everywhere. In one yard alone, the jolly old soul can be found bounding down a chimney, reading a wish list, singing carols and dancing with Mrs. Claus. Busy little guy indeed.
Decorating isn't just for kicks in Santa Claus. The town has a contest each Christmas, awarding a $200 prize to the family with the best-dressed house.
"It gives us bragging rights," said Gail Lewis, whose house won last year. It also helps offset some of the December electricity bills, which can shoot up to $300.
"I think the contest makes everyone decorate," said Charlie Jones. With wife Susan and their two children, he decorates their house in Santas and snowmen.
"It's all the talk until it's time to take it all down," Ms. Lewis said.
But it isn't just the town folk who notice. Visitors come from all over to oooh and ahhhh as they wind through the Santa Claus scenes.
"It's usually bumper-to-bumper come Christmas Eve," Ms. Lewis said.
Along with the house decorations, Santa Claus residents line the streets Christmas Eve with 1,600 candles placed inside bags.
People from all over the country flock to Santa Claus in another way -- through the mail system. They send their Christmas cards to both Santa Claus and Lyons, and the Lyons Post Office cancels their cards with a Santa Claus stamps, complete with old St. Nick's face.
"We get mail from as far away as New Jersey and Oregon," said Lyons Postmaster Paulette Warnock. "Some people actually collect these stamps."