Christmas-themed Parks
I have some slide scans featuring Christmas-themed amusement parks for you today, starting with this great shot of two kids in an antique auto (presumably built by Arrow Development?), circaJuly, 1964. Looking at the buildings and giant mushrooms in the background, it's pretty clear that this photo was taken at one of the "Santa's Village" parks. But there were several in the US, so which one is this?
I found this postcard featuring what appears to be the exact same antique auto ride, from the Santa's Village in Skyforest, California (near Lake Arrowhead). It closed in 1998.
Next is this scan from a slide dated November, 1965. It's another Santa's Village! Or maybe the complete name of this place is "Santa Claus Village", as seen on that yellow sign to the left. Either way, I can find no other photos of a park with this entrance and with that statue of Santa holding his book listing the Good Boys and Girls. So for now, this one is a mystery to me!
12 comments:
Major-
I notice in the Santas Village [sic], or Santa Claus Village image that it's air conditioned. I would think being so close to the North Pole such accoutrements would come naturally, and require no special announcements.
Thanks, Major.
The first two images are definitely Santa’s Village SKYFOREST , CA . And that is one of the Arrow Development’s Antique Auto systems. It remained as popular attraction at the mountain park till the park’s closure in 1998.
The Santa’s Village Santa Cruz used an older two seater Arrow Development Antique Auto system … that featured Model T Ford’s and Maxwell’s. The Santa Cruz location closed in 1979.
The Santa’s Village in Dundee , Illinois ( the chain’s 3rd park) had a tractor attraction later replaced by an antique auto 2 seater “ FLIVER” ride I believe by another company other than Arrow ….. CHANCE? HENSCHEL?? I can’t recall off hand.
Hmm, I do believe those colorful flowers are of the plastic variety (Flora Plasticitus), grown mainly at garden departments of big box stores across the U.S.. The little girl looks very chill riding in the green auto with the steering wheel on the wrong side.
The postcard does indeed look like the same Santa's Village. I think the Gingerbread Man looks a little sinister. He's planning something, and it can't be good.
I had a pithy paragraph written about the "Air Conditioning", but Nanook stole my thunder (haha). Looks like Santa has all 8 of his reindeer plus Rudolf. Some of them are in very awkward poses.
Nice photos for the Christmas-y season. Thanks, Major.
Faint memories of the Santa Cruz park. They had the little gas-powered tractors, a reindeer-pulled sled, an Alice in Wonderland fun house, teacups dressed as snowballs, and big cartoony tree with ornaments to ride in.
Most memorable was an array of coin-operated animal acts. On one, a duck would be released from a hidden pen to run onto his glass-fronted stage, pull the chain on a lamp, and peck at Schroeder-scaled piano. When a light flashed he'd run back to his pen to collect the pellets he just earned. On another, a chicken would pull a lever caused a souvenir newspaper to pop out of a slot.
A favorite was Romeo Rabbit, the great actor. He resided in a quaint cottage on a large stage set. There was a backyard fence with a cartoony girl bunny peeking over it. On cue RR would dash from his cottage to the fence and "kiss" his plastic costar until she lit up, at which point he dashed back to his cottage. A sign claimed Santa and his elves spent many happy evenings watching Romeo Rabbit perform.
The second picture appears to be showing us a "Walk Thru" attraction, as indicated by the sign over the door. I wonder if this could somehow have just been an isolated roadside attraction, rather than part of a larger theme park.
I think it would be great if once you entered the "Walk Thru," it turned out to be a terrifying Halloween-style maze. I remember going through a scary Halloween maze in an abandoned Barker Bros. furniture store and there was a scary "Christmas" section. And this was before "Nightmare Before Christmas" was ever released.
Thanks, Major!
Santa's Village Santa Cruz was actually in the City of Scotts Valley just five minutes north of the City of Santa Cruz. I grew up on that Santa's Village. It was such a charming little park. Not only did I go there as a child, but I took my nieces and nephew there near the end of its existence.
There are still remnants from Santa's Village (giant painted cement mushrooms) located in front of Scotts Valley City Hall in MacDorsa Park.
Thanks, Major.
Pre seatbelt laws, apparently. And I don't want Santa in the back seat recording all the shenanigans I would be up to in that car. Look at all the tire tracks from kids burning rubber!
I lived 20 miles from Santa's Village in Scotts Valley in the 50s and 60s and never went!
Thanks for the ride, Major.
Zach
Not sure why I'm anonymous these days. Who signed me out?
Zach
Well, that was easy.
Zach, ha ha!
We visited the Skyforest Santa’s Village in 1964(?). I don’t recall the car rides, but there was a spinner where the vehicles were Christmas tree ornament balls, and a bumblebee monorail. It was a cute place. Good info about Arrow, thank you!
the giant figure in the last pic is usually selling tires, and just does the Santa thing as a side gig. No idea where this might be, but it must get hot there sometimes. Fun to speculate.
Thanks Major!
JG
Nanook, Santa’s blood contains ammonia, and he requires sub-zero temperatures.
Mike Cozart, I love that Arrow Development (our old friends!) were involved in so many familiar parks around SoCal. Thanks for the info about the other SV parks and their Antique Auto rides.
JB, ha, you’re right, there’s no way those flowers are real! Hey, they looked good, and that’s all that matters. I wonder why they put the steering wheels on the right side? There has to be a reason. Why are Santa’s reindeer WHITE? Are they traditionally portrayed as albinos? Do they have red eyes? We can definitely see Rudolph’s red nose.
DBenson, very cool (and lucky) that you have memories of SV in Santa Cruz. I’m a bit baffled as to why my family never visited the Skyforest SV, since my grandparents took us to most of the SoCal amusement parks at least once, but maybe it was just too far away. I’ll bet I would have loved those coin-operated animal acts when I was a kid. How the heck does one train a duck or chicken?? Romeo Rabbit and his show sound much too erotic!
TokyoMagic!, I saw the “WALK THRU” sign, but thought it was the entrance to Santa’s Village (meaning a whole park, not just one attraction). But you could be right. Scary Halloween mazes, sure. Scary Christmas mazes? We need more!
K. Martinez, do you have photos of yourself at the Scotts Valley SV? If so, you know we’d love to see them! I’m jealous of anybody who got to experience any of the Santa’s Villages.
Zach, I’ll bet those Antique Autos went pretty slow (sub-5 mph), but still, a seatbelt of some kind would have been nice. This was 1964, nobody cared! I’ll bet those vehicles had a governor on them, and that they could probably actually get some decent speed if those were removed.
Zach, teenagers with long hair did it!
Zach, did you just automatically sign back in? It’s a miracle.
JG, I have photos of the spinner ride that looked like a Christmas tree, along with one or two photos of the Bumblebee Monorail, including one from YOU! Hmmm, now I’m wondering if Santa was a modified muffler man?
JB - i have this image of a groundskeeper plucking real plants out as the sprout among the plastic ones.
This pictures of Santa's Village make me want to rewatch the RiffTrax "Santa's Village of Madness" that was shot there.
The last "Santa's Village" place looks like it may be a Christmastime overlay of a Frontierland stockade-like attraction the rest of the year (also maybe why it's air conditioned)
Santa has a book of Good Boys and Girls, but he looks ready to smite the bad ones.
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