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Ask most children how Santa Claus gets around and the answer is obvious.
A sleigh.
Reindeer.
Maybe a chimney or two.
But generations of children growing up in Carmel Valley learned that Santa had another mode of transportation.
He flew in.
For decades, families gathered at the old Carmel Valley airfield in December and looked toward the western sky, waiting for an airplane carrying Santa and Mrs. Claus to appear over the Valley.
Later, the airplane became a helicopter.
The arrival became a parade.
Children who once waited for Santa eventually returned with children of their own.
And what began as a small community idea in 1959 became one of Carmel Valley's most beloved traditions.
Santa really has been arriving by air in Carmel Valley since 1959.
The tradition began with fixed-wing airplanes at the Carmel Valley airfield and later transitioned to helicopters after fixed-wing operations at the old airport ended.
Why Was There an Airport in Carmel Valley?
To understand the Santa Fly-In, you first have to understand one of the more unusual chapters in Carmel Valley Village history.
The Village was once closely connected with aviation.
During the 1940s, developer Byington Ford envisioned something remarkably ambitious for what was then a much more rural Carmel Valley:
A community where pilots could live beside an airport and taxi their airplanes almost to their homes.
Ford and his brother Tirey became involved in developing the Carmel Valley airfield and the nearby commercial center that became known as Airway Village.
The larger residential aviation concept never developed on the scale originally imagined.
But the airport survived.
So did the commercial village around it.
Over the decades, Airway Village gradually evolved into the Carmel Valley Village we know today.
You can read the broader story in our history of Carmel Valley Village and Airway Village.
A Small Airport Becomes Part of Valley Life
The airfield became more than simply a place to land an airplane.
Pilots stored aircraft there.
Residents became accustomed to seeing airplanes coming and going.
The field became part of the visual landscape of Carmel Valley Village.
And, as often happens in small communities, somebody eventually came up with an idea.
Why not bring Santa Claus in by airplane?
The First Carmel Valley Santa Fly-In
The tradition began in 1959.
Local community leaders and volunteer firefighters worked with pilots associated with the Carmel Valley airport to create something special for local children.
Instead of waiting for Santa to arrive in a sleigh, children would watch him descend from the sky in an airplane.
The earliest events were modest compared with what followed.
Only a relatively small crowd attended.
But the idea worked.
Children loved it.
Families returned.
And the Santa Fly-In became part of the Carmel Valley holiday calendar.
Imagine Seeing This as a Child
Part of the appeal is easy to understand.
Carmel Valley Village is surrounded by hills.
The airfield occupied a broad, open piece of relatively level ground in the center of the community.
Families could gather near the runway and look west toward the opening of the Valley.
Then a small airplane would appear.
It would grow larger.
Circle toward the field.
Land.
And out stepped Santa Claus.
For a child, the distinction between aviation and magic probably wasn't especially important.
Santa Didn't Come Alone
Over the years, the event expanded well beyond the landing itself.
Mrs. Claus joined the arrival.
A parade carried the celebration through Carmel Valley Village.
Community organizations, volunteers and local businesses became involved.
Children could visit Santa, enjoy food and activities, and participate in what became a genuine community festival rather than simply an airplane landing.
The Fly-In became one of those small-town traditions where participation passed from one generation to another.
Adults who remembered waiting beside the runway as children began bringing their own sons and daughters.
Eventually, some came with grandchildren.
By 2013, reporting on the event described crowds approaching 600 people and quoted longtime organizers who were already seeing former children return with their own children and grandchildren.
That is one reason the Santa Fly-In feels less like a holiday attraction and more like a piece of Carmel Valley family history.
The Delfino Family and the Airfield
The airfield's history eventually became closely associated with the Delfino family.
Mary Delfino, one of Carmel Valley's longtime residents, became particularly connected with both the property and the Fly-In.
The City of Carmel's oral-history collection describes Delfino as a former owner of the Carmel Valley airfield who supported the Santa Claus Fly-In for many years.
Her story is important because the continued existence of community traditions often depends less on institutions than on individual families who allow them to continue.
For decades, the former airport property remained privately owned while also functioning informally as a community open space.
Residents walked there.
People rode horses.
Emergency crews used the property.
And each December, Santa still had somewhere to land.
When Santa Traded the Airplane for a Helicopter
Eventually, the aviation portion of the story changed.
Fixed-wing operations at the Carmel Valley airfield came to an end around the turn of the twenty-first century, with the airport formally closing to commercial aviation in 2002.
For many traditions, losing the airport might have meant losing the event.
Carmel Valley found another solution.
Santa switched aircraft.
Beginning around 2000, organizers began bringing Santa and Mrs. Claus into the Valley by helicopter.
The new arrival may even have made the event more dramatic.
Children could watch the helicopter appear as a distant speck over the Valley, approach the field, circle the crowd and descend with Santa visible through the window.
No reindeer required.
A Flyover Before Landing
One of the traditions associated with the helicopter era was the flyover.
Before landing, the aircraft could circle the waiting crowd while Santa waved from inside.
Only then would the helicopter descend.
For children waiting below, the anticipation became part of the event.
Santa wasn't suddenly appearing from behind a building.
Everyone could see him coming.
Why This Tradition Fits Carmel Valley So Well
The Santa Fly-In probably could not have developed quite the same way in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Pacific Grove or downtown Monterey.
It belongs to Carmel Valley.
The Valley historically had room.
It had an airfield.
It had volunteer firefighters, pilots, ranch families, local merchants and community organizations accustomed to working together.
And Carmel Valley Village had the kind of small-town scale where a local holiday event could become a tradition people identified with personally.
That community character still distinguishes Carmel Valley Village from the more urbanized coastal communities of the Monterey Peninsula.
The Airfield Was Never Just an Airport
Another interesting part of the story is what happened after normal aviation operations stopped.
The old airport did not simply disappear from community life.
The broad open property continued to function informally as a place for walking, jogging, horseback riding and community activities.
It also took on another important role.
Emergency crews have used the property as a staging area during major wildfire responses.
During the 2016 Soberanes Fire, for example, helicopters and firefighting operations used the former airfield.
That makes the property unusual.
Its original aviation purpose faded, but its open space and central location continued to make it useful to Carmel Valley.
The Santa Fly-In Survived the Airport
Perhaps the best evidence of the tradition's strength is that the Santa Fly-In continued even after airplanes stopped regularly using the field.
The airport closed.
The runway deteriorated.
The pilots moved elsewhere.
But Santa kept coming.
Monterey County records from recent years still show permits associated with the Santa Fly-In, landing area and community celebration.
And in 2026, local reporting continued to describe the Fly-In as a decades-old Carmel Valley tradition.
From Airway Village to Wine Country
One of the reasons the Fly-In story is so interesting is how different today's Carmel Valley Village appears from the community that created it.
The early Village grew around an aviation-oriented development concept.
Today, people are far more likely to associate Carmel Valley Village with:
- Wine tasting rooms
- Restaurants and cafés
- Galleries
- Local shops
- Country homes
- Vineyards
- Hiking and outdoor recreation
The airplanes are mostly gone.
But pieces of the aviation story remain.
The old airfield is one.
The Santa Fly-In is another.
And even the Village's development history traces back to Byington Ford's unusual vision for an aviation community.
Why the Story Matters to Carmel Valley Real Estate
This isn't a story about property values.
But it does help explain why Carmel Valley Village looks the way it does.
Unlike a master-planned suburban community built all at once, the Village evolved gradually from ranch land, aviation development, small commercial buildings, country homes and later residential neighborhoods.
The result is an unusually varied real estate market.
Within a relatively small area, buyers can encounter older cottages, mid-century ranch houses, hillside homes, level residential lots, acreage, horse properties and substantial estates.
Some properties are close enough to the Village to walk to restaurants or tasting rooms.
Others sit only minutes away but feel distinctly rural.
Understanding how the Village developed helps explain why its real estate is so much less uniform than a conventional subdivision.
What Can You See Today?
The former airfield property remains in Carmel Valley Village near the community center and residential streets that grew around the old airport.
The Village surrounding it is very different from the aviation-centered community imagined generations ago.
Yet the open land still provides a visual reminder that airplanes once routinely landed here.
And when the holiday season arrives, that aviation history comes back to life in a way few communities can match.
A child attending one of the earliest Santa Fly-Ins in 1959 could now be bringing grandchildren or great-grandchildren to the same Carmel Valley tradition.
That kind of continuity is increasingly rare — and it is exactly what makes local traditions worth preserving and remembering.
A Tradition Born From a Place
The best local traditions aren't manufactured by a marketing department.
They grow naturally from the place where they happen.
Pacific Grove's early tent camps make sense because Pacific Grove began as a seaside religious retreat.
Pebble Beach's Witch Tree and Ostrich Tree make sense because 17-Mile Drive was built around extraordinary natural landmarks.
Monterey's whalebone sidewalk makes sense because Monterey once supported a shore-whaling industry.
And Carmel Valley's Santa Fly-In makes sense because there really was an airport sitting in the middle of the Village.
Someone simply looked at it and thought:
Why shouldn't Santa land here?
Why Locals Still Tell This Story
Carmel Valley has changed tremendously since 1959.
Ranch land became neighborhoods.
Airway Village became wine country.
The airport closed.
The Monterey Peninsula grew around it.
But every December, one of the Valley's oldest modern traditions reminds people of a more intimate Carmel Valley.
A community where volunteer firefighters, local pilots, families and merchants could come together and create something memorable simply because it sounded like fun.
More than six decades later, Santa is still flying in.
That's exactly the kind of story we want to preserve through Stories, Legends & Local Lore of the Monterey Peninsula.
Explore Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley Real Estate & Neighborhood Guide
Carmel Valley Village Real Estate & Homes for Sale
Carmel Valley Village History: From Airway Village to Wine Country
The Complete History of Carmel Valley
The History of Carmel Valley Wine Country
More Stories, Legends & Local Lore of the Monterey Peninsula →
Historical sources consulted: Carmel Valley Historical Society; City of Carmel oral-history collection, including the Mary Delfino interview; Carmel Valley Association historical materials; Monterey County records; Monterey County Weekly; and historical reporting on the Carmel Valley Airfield and Santa Fly-In.