Midland's Santa House and the Santa school that meets there

Midland’s Santa House and the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School fit together so neatly that they can sound like one institution. They are not. The Santa House is a county-owned downtown landmark supported by the Midland Area Community Foundation, while the nonprofit school uses the building for a three-day session each October.

The present Santa House was built in 1987 with help from the Community Foundation, local contractors, and other donors. Its stucco and fieldstone exterior was designed to sit comfortably beside the Midland County Courthouse. Inside are two lofts of holiday displays, a fieldstone fireplace, a grandfather clock, and a carved chair for Santa. After construction, the building was given to Midland County, which makes it available to the Foundation during the holiday season.

The school has its own longer and more traveled history. Charles W. Howard founded it in Albion, New York, in 1937. A later owner moved it to Bay City in 1968, and Tom and Holly Valent brought it to Midland in 1987. The school’s operator calls it the world’s oldest or longest-running Santa school and says about 300 new and returning students attend each year. Those are the operator’s claims, not a ranking from an independent world registry. The school is a nonprofit, but the available sources do not establish that it is the only nonprofit Santa school.

The courthouse lights go back farther than either present-day arrangement. In the 1930s, Mrs. Herbert H. Dow made sure small lighted trees appeared around the courthouse. The display paused during World War II. In the late 1940s, Gil Currie and Bob Wilson helped bring it back. Today an endowment named for Gil and Eleanor Currie supports the seasonal displays and Santa House, alongside Midland County, the city, the Foundation, and volunteers.

That is the useful way to picture the corner of Main and M-20: one town tradition, several caretakers, and a Santa school that comes to class before the local visiting season begins. Current dates belong on the operators’ pages, because Christmas may be annual but the calendar still moves.