Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Santa's Village

I previously blogged a "Santa's Village" brochure among the others I found last Spring.  Recently, I came across yet another one with different pictures.  "Santa's Village" was a North Pole-themed amusement park that opened in the 1950's.  They had 3 locations; 2 in California and 1 in Chicago. In addition to Santa Claus, the park featured other fairy tale buildings, rides and characters.






I also recently found these postcards for "Santa's Village" which I believe were shot at their Lake Arrowhead location.

Here you see a couple of other characters that appeared at Santa's Village including Jack Pumpkinhead and Peter Rabbit.  Peter Rabbit is pretty freaky looking, but I kind of like Jack.

Bumblebee Monorail

I'm not sure what Santa's Helper is holding there.

 No "surprise package" is worth sliding through that clown's gaping maw.

Santa's Bobsled

"Santa's Village" closed in 1998.  Someone has created a tribute to it on Youtube.  Some neat photos, but unless you like can take Rod Stewart singing "Wonderful World", you might want to turn your sound down.

 Yesterday


Another fan of the park took this recent footage of the now abandoned "Santa's Village".

Today

Some additional modern day photos can be found here.

In 2014, the Lake Arrowhead "Santa's Village" was purchased by a developer with the intent to reopen the park with an opening date of Summer 2015.  No word on the progress.
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6 comments:

  1. FrankOJuly 8, 2015 at 2:48 PM

    i agree. no money is worth that clown's mouth. and i can't watch the video because i'm afraid of reigniting my decades-long unwanted "god of rod stewart" thing, just when i seem to have shaken it. long story.

    in completely unrelated but totally exciting news, Iron Giant is coming back to theaters this fall! http://tinyurl.com/pvl7xev

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TomJuly 8, 2015 at 4:31 PM

      >Iron Giant is coming back
      That is exciting! Love the new poster too!

      Delete
    2. FrankOJuly 8, 2015 at 6:53 PM

      some people are seeing it as a nod to the Rocketeer, but i think that might be a bit of a stretch.

      Delete
  2. Bob JohnsJuly 8, 2015 at 5:08 PM

    The Santa's village in Chicago reopened this year but I'm not sure it opened as the same name.

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    Replies
    1. TomJuly 9, 2015 at 7:25 AM

      I wasn't aware of that. Just googled it and found http://santasvillagedundee.com/. It's called Santa's Village Azoosment Park and looks like rides and a petting zoo. I don't see a whole lot left of the original park (or Santa) though.

      Delete
    2. Bob JohnsJuly 11, 2015 at 11:09 AM

      At one time, a water park in Utica Il (Starved Rock) bought a few of the rides from Santas Village. The last time we went there they did not have any of them up at all so I always wonder what ever happened to them.

      Delete

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