Vintage Santa's Post Office In Antique Store

Yesterday, while browsing at an antique store in Abilene, KS, I found an interesting item. It was a life-size tin/metal counter from Santa Claus, Indiana where children could write letters to Santa and then drop them in a mailbox that was attached.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, or I would have taken tons of pictures because it was so neat. I did take one with my cell phone, but it is not so good. So, after almost an hour of searching online, I found this image:





This one varies slightly from the one I saw. The front piece that is red, white, and blue in the photo was all green with writing at the store. The one at the store looks older, in my opinion.

The owner said she was asking $5,250 for it. According to her, there were only a dozen of these made.

Does anyone know anything else about this unique piece? It would be fun to have, but is WAY out of my budget!

That's lovely SM,
perhaps you should have asked the owner?
If she knew only 15 existed, she surely must know who
produced them.
Unless she is spinning a yarn, or relating hearsay.

I can't provide any information on the diplay but I came across this cover this morning and thought it would fit nicely in this thread.

I can't date that display either, but this is a nice read on the history of the town of Santa Claus, Indiana which, surprising to me anyway, claims to be (by percentage) "the fastest growing community in the state of Indiana! The town was incorporated in 1967, with a population of just 37. The population of the town now numbers over 2,300."

http://www.hohoholdings.com/schistory.htm

Two additional bits of Santa Claus (IN) trivia:

The post office was established there on May 21, 1856.

Since 1914, every child's letter mailed to Santa Claus (PO Box 1, Santa Claus, IN 47579) before December 21st will receive a letter back from Santa Claus himself.

I like the Santa Claus, IN post office street address, too:

45 N KRINGLE PL
SANTA CLAUS, IN 47579-9998

What colors was the one you saw was it a green box with yellow writing?