Slide of the Week: December 2nd, 2004
Santa’s Village, Lake Arrowhead, 1958
Two lovely young ladies clad in sleeveless blouses and capri-clam digger-pedal pusher-toreador pants rest on giant cement mushrooms in front of the “Welcome House,” of Southern California’s most bizarre theme park. The first of three Santa’s Villages — the others were in Santa Cruz and Dundee, Illinois — it opened just months before Disneyland in 1955. The fifteen-acre, larger-than-life toyland was designed to keep the legend of Santa Claus and the spirit of Christmas alive throughout the year. Oddly, it was open every day but Christmas
Spectacular cartoon-like storybook buildings made from logs cut from local ponderosa pine trees were sugar coated in bright colors and artistically detailed inside and out. Employees costumed as elves sold tickets and souvenirs, operated the rides and served food and refreshments. Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, the Easter Bunny and “Jack-the-Pumpkinhead” roamed the grounds and greeted guests. The best rides were the bumble bee monorail, candy cane sleigh pulled by “Dancer, Prancer, Donder and Blitzen,” a spinning Christmas tree — you rode in the ornaments — and miniature train ride “through the enchanted forest.” There was also a petting zoo, the Chapel of the Little Shepherd, Wee Marionette Puppet Theater, Santa’s House where kids could check to see if their name was in the “good book”, a “help yourself” lollipop tree and the North Pole, where the ice never melted, no matter how hot it ever got.
I had the privilege of visiting the park only twice, once as a child and once just before it went out of business in 1998. What impressed me the most as a kid, besides the shocking pink shake roof and bumble bee monorail, were the giant cement mushrooms. As an adult, it was how many employees had missing teeth.
Here’s to Santa’s Village and you!!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
December 2004
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Holidays & Theme Parks
17 Comments on “Santa's Village, Lake Arrowhead, 1958”
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April 17th, 2006 at 1:41 am
I have to tell you, this slide brought back a million memories for me. I grew up in the Bay Area where we also had a Santa’s Village in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A 30-minute, twisting, turning climb over the Summit of Highway 17 would deliver us to this magical holiday world.
What gets me is your recollection of those amazing, oversized mushrooms…my parents have many snapshots of my sister and I sitting among those colorful mushrooms. The memory, although years behind me, still comes in crystal clear. How I remember those mushrooms! I was fascinated with them!!
Thanks for bringing such a wonderful memory back to life for me!!
April 19th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
I found this site while looking for older pictures of the Lake Arrowhead Village. It brings back many memories for me too. I grew up in Lake Arrowhead and as a teenager I worked at Santa’s Village. I was an elf in the summer of 1976. My dad built many of the buildings there as well. This was a great find for me. Thank you so much for having it on the web.
May 5th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
My sister got a bad case of mononucleosis in 1959 when she was only 2 and everybody blamed it on when she kissed Santa Claus at this place (probably not true, of course).
May 28th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
FYI, the train from Santa’s Village was bought and restored by the Friends of the Santa Ana Zoo several years ago and now takes trips around the children’s area. Yes Santa Ana Zoo has a zoo. A Small one.
July 21st, 2006 at 6:27 am
Mr Pumpkin head scareed me to death hey I was only like 5 or 6!!!
Those 50’s colors wow!!
August 7th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
I used the photo of my 4 kids with Santa as a Christmas card one year. My youngest holding a page from a catalog to show Santa exactly which car set he wanted. And good old Santa delivered as ordered.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:04 am
It is so nice to read such wonderful things about my favorite amusement park, which is sadly long gone now. I worked for Santa’s for about 12 years painting the carousel and then the buildings during the summer. When the auction of the park’s rides and inventory occured, I was able to purchase the carousel for my own carousel museum in Irwindale, CA. I have seen many mushrooms in front of homes around Sky Forest and Running Springs and have to remember the booming business the maintenance staff did in digging them up and transporting them. There was as much mushroom below the ground as above, after all. The Twirling Christmas Tree went to a Birthday Party and U PickIt farm in Carnation, Wa and the Pumpkin Coach, 4 reindeer and several figures from the Magic Train Ride went to a farm in Oregon that raises money for handicapped children. And it is a pleasure to see the Train running in Santa Ana, CA.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
It sad to see this photo although it does bring back great memories. Except for one…. I was a YMCA camp counselor during the early 80’s during one summer we had a fieldtrip to the village. Within 30 minutes of arriving one of the kids vanashed. He was found 2 hours later…… in the parking lot. It’s sad to see the Arrowhead village a shell of itself now being used as storage area for heavy forestry equipment.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Last fall, while visiting one of the animal keepers who worked there when I did, I drove over to see what was going on at Santa’s. The forest to the south of the park was gone, having burned in the fire the year before. and both parking lots were so full of stacks of full length pine and spruce logs from the effort to control the bark beetles you couldn’t see the entry and exit building. it was an amazing sight.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:59 am
News of the fires around Lake Arrowhead reminded me of our family vacation to California when I was 8 years old in 1960.
We visited my uncle who drove us to Santa’s Village from San Gabriel where they lived. I remember taking a carton of pop bottles filled with water in the car for the radiator in case it overheated. We took a picture of us standing under a thermometer somewhere going up the mountains that said 95 degrees, yet when we got to the top Santa was decked out in his red velvet suit. Seeing Santa was the most special event to me. Other Santas always had a fake beard, and I was sure this had to be the real Santa because his beard was real!
I also remember the train ride through the enchanted forest. Waht a soecial place this was for believers! Thanks for bringing back special memories!
June 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Charles, I love getting your Slide of the Week. Your latest on Florida’s “Storyland” led me to Google “Santa’s Village,” so what a treat to find your name in the search!
Growing up in Lake Arrowhead, many of my friends worked at Santa’s Village through the summers of the late ’70’s (and by the way, they had all of their teeth!) I remember a short-lived outdoor discotheque there. It was not well-attended, but it offered a unique place to dance for mountain kids under age 21.
We also knew the owners of the park, the Henck family. Mrs. Henck was “The Lollipop Lady,” while Mr. Henck’s mother, Mary Putnam, was an important historical figure in education in the mountains. Our junior high was named for her.
It’s too bad that Santa’s Village is gone. Would’ve been fun to take my own kids there…
June 18th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Ah, Santa’s Village! My wife’s father passed away when she was only 12 years old. Until that time he’d take the family up to Santa’s Village every summer and there he would sit my wife on one of the many concrete toad stools that populated the park, he’d stand beside her while her mom snapped a picture. Every year a picture, every year taken on the same toad stool. There are twelve of them in an album on our coffee table there in the den. A few years back Santa’s Village closed and held a public auction, selling off everything that the park held from the Bumble Bee ride to the costumes worn by the employees. Needless to say, we went. A few hours later (and more than a few hundred dollars lighter) we were headed down the mountian with our load; a employee costume (green felt vest and eflish hat, name badge and red/white striped shirt) Donner’s mailbox, a gross of vintage “Come see Santa in the Summertime” bumper stickers, and best of all - riding in the back of a strained trailer - the concrete toadstool my wife had had her picture taken on all those years ago. Currently it resides in our yard - where every year we take pictures of our daughters to put into the album.
We almost didnt get the toad stool - we were repeatedly outbid bu someone with considerably deeper pockets than we had - who was this weathly collector of kitch? Paul Ruebens aka PeeWee Herman
September 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Does anyone know what they did with the concrete mushrooms on the property?
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Wow, I can’t belive I found this web site. I use to work at Santa’s Village in 65 66 67 with Tony Crowder His sisters Tracy & Trudi and the rest of the gang, also Bill Bailey which he lives in Grants Pass, Or now. It was so much fun working there it was like christmas everyday….
November 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Does anyone know what happened to the little sheperd chapel?
Does anyone have a copy of the book that the little chapel was dedicated from?
January 13th, 2009 at 9:10 am
someone in the Rochester,ny area looking for a recipe from the Santa village; recipes for a dip made with Mrs. Claus’ Blanc and seasonables dips, the name of the dip was”Mrs. Claus’ Special Dip”
April 18th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I am so happy that I found this site, maybe a litle late, however. I grew up in the San Bernardino area (it was actually a really nice place to be a kid in the late 60’s and early 70’s…orange groves everywhere) and have so many fond memories of Santa’s Village. I now have a vacation home up in Lake Arrowhead and have been looking for the remains of Santa’s Village. I have noticed a few of the concrete mushrooms around the area, but can not remember where exactly Santa’s Village was, other than Skyforest. My almost 80 year old mother just asked me recently if Santa’s Village was still here. She sounded so sad when I told her that it closed years ago. Thinking about it beings back wonderful memories of spending time there with much loved, much missed friends and relatives. I never even knew that there were other locations! I have been looking in vain for some photos other than postcards or other memorabilia. It seems there just isn’t much to be found. It is surprising that so little remains of this place, but it is heartwarming to find that Santas’s Village meant so much to so many other people. Just thinking about the loss of the place brings tears to my eyes.