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.
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No "surprise package" is worth sliding through that clown's gaping maw.
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Another fan of the park took this recent footage of the now abandoned "Santa's Village".
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.
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.