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The Santa’s Village that competed with Disneyland

Image via www.skyparksantasvillage.com

The Santa’s Village in Lake Arrowhead, California not only has the distinction of not only being the first-ever franchised theme park, but also opened just prior to the original Disneyland. Built by developer Greg Holland, it was the first of three Santa’s Village’s that followed the original in Jefferson. This one, which opened a little over a month before Walt Disney’s theme park, was 220 acres and one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of Southern Florida. Rides like a monorail, a Ferris wheel and a bobsled along with a petting zoo, live reindeer and an assortment of shops made it a must-see. At least until Disneyland opened, that is. 

While it didn’t quite have the staying power of the original, the Santa’s Village at Lake Arrowhead was able to last 33 years until it finally closed on March 1, 1998. Even though the area was sold three years later for almost $6 million, parts of the location became sort-of ghost towns. Specifically the buildings and the faded candy cane signpost along the Rim of the World Highway.

The property was purchased by another party in June of 2014. The new owner plans to operate a tourist attraction named SkyPark. More on that soon.

The second Santa’s Village in California

Image via localwiki.org

Not satisfied with one Santa’s Village in the Golden State, Greg Holland added another in Scotts Valley, California way back in 1955. This wasn’t too different from the one at Lake Arrowhead. Some different attractions included a spinning Christmas tree, Santa’s Express train, a gigantic Jack-in-the-box and Santa’s boot, plus a hall of mirrors inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Holland sold the park to another developer named Noorudin Billawalla in the summer of 1966, but it closed for good only eleven years later. Borland International, a software company, bought the land in 1990 to serve as its world headquarters. Most of the remnants of Santa’s Village were removed, except for a couple of freeway exit signs that still read “Santa’s Village Road” that remind you of what once was…

The many changes to the final Santa’s Village

Like the other two Santa’s Villages, the one in East Dundee, Illinois was originally built by Greg Holland, but it has outlived him as probably the one with the richest and most complex history. The final one to be built by Holland, the idea was that it would be a sort of hub for a much larger chain. That didn’t happen, though. Theme parks planned for Richmond, Virginia and Cherry Hill, New Jersey never happened, and the East Dundee Santa’s Village was the last in Greg Holland’s legacy.

At first the park was basically another Santa’s Village. Focused on presenting the fantastical location through a child’s eyes, it had a lot of success early on with 20 million people going through its gates over its entire history. That’s not Disneyland numbers (not even close), but still rather impressive, and especially noteworthy for a park in the Midwest. The biggest difference from the other Villages was that it added a whole new park in 1983, called Racing Rapids Action Park, to the north side of this Santa's Village.

Medina Investors would end up purchasing Santa’s Village in 1972. They renamed the park Worlds of Fun. That caused some level of confusion, so they later renamed it Three Worlds of Santa's Village. Those three worlds were:

  • Santa's World: This is the world that had the most resemblance to a typical Santa’s Village. Attraction included Santa's House, where children would get a picture with Santa, as well as The North Pole, Frog Hopper, Balloon Ride, Snowball Ride, Giant Slide, the Dragon Coaster and a live theater.
  • Old McDonald's Farm: A place for all of the animals in the park. It had the Pony Ride, the Petting Zoo, and the Animal Pens where the animals were kept in off-hours.
  • Coney Island: The newest part of the park, it had familiar amusement park rides like a Tilt-a-whirl, The Yo-yo, Bumble bee, and a magic show.

Santa’s Village even added a water park, named Racing Rapids. It was one of the earliest midwestern water parks and was the largest in the state of Illinois. That wasn’t enough to save the park from eventual closure though. Racing Rapids ran from 1983 to 2006, along with the rest of Three Worlds of Santa’s Village. 

Half of the original Santa’s Village property was replaced with a paintball playing area called Paintball Explosion in April of 2011. The owners of it turned the Polar Dome ice rink into an indoor paintball field, and also build six more fields outdoors. Many of the structures from attractions were reused as decoration. The other half of the original Santa’s Village was remade into Azoosementpark the next month. It has rides and attractions, a few of those from Santa’s Village, plus an exotic pet exhibit. The area is no longer devoted to the fabled theme park franchise, no, but it seems to be being put into relatively good use.

 
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