Saturday, December 25, 2010

Santa's Village, August 1959

Merry Christmas! I know you want to relax today, but I'm going to drag you to Santa's Village, near beautiful Lake Arrowhead. (See part one of this group here).


There he is, the man himself - St. Nick! Everyone loves him, especially the ladies. Sure, they love the beard, but they also dig the fact that he's a Saint.


I love the goopy pink roof on this building. It looks like the cottage that attracted Hansel and Gretel, but the sign over the front door assures us that this is the Good Witch's Bakery. We can assume that she won't eat us.


The Christmas tree is also a ride; a Dumbo-type ride in which guests sit in oversized ornaments. The perpetually snow-covered tree spins with you, which is kind of cool, and as you can tell by the slots in the side, you are able to move your ornament up and down. Don't do it too quickly though, each ornament is actually made of razor thin glass. You'll be sliced to ribbons if you crash!


I'll bet you think we're through with Santa's Village, but you're wrong!

10 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

It looks like those ornaments weren't very easy to get into or out of...each one appears to have a step ladder next to it.

I wonder what happened to this ride after Santa's Village closed?

Anonymous said...

I especially like the picture of the man and woman sitting on Santa's lap, but why on earth is the man wearing bedroom slippers!

Katella Gate said...

How funny, my folks and me were just talking about our times at Santa's Village. Sweet of you Major to read our minds like that ... I though my cerebellum was tickling me!

Merry Christmas!

Chuck said...

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful GDB lurkers!

Thanks for another wonderful post!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

I want that Christmas Tree Dumbo ride for my back yard!

I hope you had a stellar Christmas!

Chuck said...

Just watched the Twilight Zone episode "Night of the Meek" with Art Carney as a department store Santa (yes, I reaize I'm a couple of days late). End credits: "Reindeer furnished by Santa's Village, Skyforest California."

Major Pepperidge said...

Thanks for the holiday wishes, folks!

Chuck, that is a very cool bit of trivia.

JG said...

Great shots major, these are better than mine, but mine have snow.

I will scan these up and get to you.

I finally figured out the trip, I will outline when i send the pictures.

JG

Anonymous said...

I am the grandson of one of the owners of the good witches bakery back in the 1970-1980's and wandered if anyone has pictures during that time.

Anonymous said...

I am the grandson of a couple that ran the good witches bakery during 1970-1980 and wandered if anyone had any good pictures during that time. Hope someone might
SK