I'll admit it up front; I don't know squat about Santa's Village; however, these little vintage gems were part of a scrapbook collection that had some great August 1955 Disneyland and Knott's shots as well. All I could really find on the net about this place was that it promoted itself as being located in "Sky Forest". Opened in 1955, it was built to replicate successful Santa attractions in New York and Colorado (and subsequent Santa's Villages went up in Scotts Valley, CA and Dundee, IL). Santa's Village shut down in 1998. The caption for the first photo is "Silver Slipper Lane."
For those needing a dose of spirituality, Santa's Little Church might be the place for you.
While you pray, I'll be pigging out at Santa's Candy Kitchen.
Apparently, Santa had a lot in common with ol' Thomas Edison; he even had his own Electric Shop.
I can only guess that the toys were made here, in Santa's Work Shop.
If this post has you feeling a little "frosty," then you might be inspired by this recipe for Snow Cones, in commemoration of the September 20th 70th Anniversary of "Dumbo" Blu-ray release. Just click on the photo to download the pdf.
See more vintage Santa's Village photos on my Santa's Village web page.
Those are some wonderful Santa's Village photos. SV was another SoCal park that my family never visited, somehow. But I love the old-fashioned, innocent atmosphere that it had.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I'm lucky, we had a friend with a cabin in the mountains, so visits to Santa's Village were not rare, and were at an age that I'd appreciate it as a child (4-10)
ReplyDeleteThese photos are nice and do represent the feel of the park when it was in its prime.
I got to visit that park in the late 80's when I was very young. My little sister was obsessed with santa and we went for her birthday. That place was WEIRD. Mind it was in very bad shape by then and I was never one for santa but it was like if a willie wonka dreamed turned into a nightmare. Creepy. Sadly, it is closed but I believe the structures are still up there. I have a greater appreciated value for its pitch factor now. These photos are lovely.
ReplyDeleteCool - that brought back soom neat memories!
ReplyDeleteI remember it from around 1965.The scent of pine trees, Santa, and for some reason, a fire engine.
ReplyDeleteI visited this one in about '64 or '65 as well, in the winter. I remember snow and being very cold.
ReplyDeleteMajor Pepperidge was kind enough to post some of my pics over at GDB, if you care to see them.
These add to my experience, I remember some of these buildings now that I see the pics. Thank you Dave!
The theming was pretty good, as in the building styles and fairy tale tie-ins, easter bunny, tooth fairy, etc. but the rides were just carnival type rides tarted up to look North-Polish. Exception: The Bee Monorail, which was very different.
Never thought of it before, I guess Santa and the elves are of North Polish extraction.
JG