Where Christmas Was Celebrated Year-Round: The Story of Santa Claus, Arizona
Arizona is rife with talented celebrity chefs, and one of the first was Ninon Talbot, a former Los Angeles real estate agent turned kitchen whiz. “In her own field, she was an artist equal to Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Shakespeare,” proclaimed science fiction writer Robert Heinlein in his short story, “Cliff and the Calories,” published in 1950 and later reprinted in Expanded Universe.
Ninon Talbot, assisted by her husband, Edward Talbot, served five-course gourmet meals at the Christmas Tree Inn, 12 miles north of Kingman on U.S. Highway 93.
The holiday-themed feasts, served year-round, included Eskimo Fruit Cocktail, North Sea Shrimp Cocktail, Poinsettia Tomato Soup, Chicken a la Snow White, Mary’s Little Lamb Chops, Evergreen Salad, and North Pole Salad. Ninon’s specialty, however, was 16 featured desserts, including the legendary Kris Kringle Rum Pie.
The Christmas Tree Inn was the centerpiece of a roadside attraction called Santa Claus, Arizona.
The tale of this "town" dates back to 1936 when Hoover Dam was completed to harness the Colorado River. The Talbots, who operated the Kit Carson Guest House along Route 66 in Kingman, realized the dam’s tourist potential and purchased 80 acres north of town.
By the following year, the Talbots had created an incongruous yuletide haven that provided legendary home-cooked meals, Texaco gasoline, and children’s attractions for curious motorists.
Santa Claus comprised five buildings designed by Edward Talbot and built by W.J. Zinck, a Kingman contractor. The Christmas Tree Inn featured a prominent red and white-tiled roof with candy cane striping running down the exterior walls. Santa Claus hung on the chimney.
The Talbots lived in a nearby house; next door was a candy-striped Texaco service station. There were two miniature buildings for the kids. The Cinderella Doll House was a wooden, A-frame structure with a cockled chimney surrounded by a white picket fence. Cutouts of the Three Little Pigs enlivened the adjacent brick “Pig Hut,” which also featured the hungry Big Bad Wolf descending into the chimney.
The roadside oasis quickly became a popular dining stop for tourists and locals. Edward passed away at age 52 in 1942, but Ninon continued creating mouthwatering feasts. There was one major problem with the roadside attraction. Besides the lack of snow, the Talbots unknowingly built at a location where the groundwater was scarce because of a nearby geologic fault. The Christmas Tree Inn’s menu pleaded, “Our water is trucked fifteen miles; please help us save it. Thank you, Mrs. Santa Claus.”
Ninon sold Santa Claus in 1950 when she was 60 and moved back to Los Angeles, where she died in 1963. She found sympathetic purchasers in Doc and Erma Bromaghim, hardworking owners who continued the establishment’s many traditions. They eventually sold the property in 1965.
A succession of eight new owners purchased Santa Claus—each attracted by its romance without consideration given to the long hours needed to run and maintain the establishment. As a result, the all-important “vibe” of the place slowly evanesced, and what was once enchanting appeared increasingly frayed and tacky.
Santa Claus began its sad demise, as the Christmas Tree Inn was transformed from a beacon of fine dining to serving microwave sandwiches. To lend the appearance of vitality, junk cars driven by mannequins populated the parking lot to the backdrop of warbling holiday tapes played on low-fidelity loudspeakers. In 1991, the state erased Santa Claus from the official Arizona map, and the Christmas Tree Inn closed two years later.
For decades, Santa Claus’s deteriorating buildings were a weird amalgamation of fading holiday cheer overlaid with recent gang graffiti. Despite nearby commercial development along U.S. Highway 93, the funky eatery was never resurrected, and the remaining buildings were razed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only remains of Arizona’s favorite faux North Pole attraction are scattered ephemera and a killer recipe for Kris Kringle Rum Pie.
Douglas C. Towne is the editor of Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, arizcc.com, the 2022 winner of the Arizona Historical Society’s Al Merito Award.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Where Christmas Was Celebrated Year-Round: Santa Claus, Arizona
