Santa's Village was a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

-themed

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

from 1957 to 1979, located in

Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles (48 km) south of downtown San Jose and six miles (10 km) north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mounta ...

, United States.

History and attractions

In 1956 the Lawridge dairy farm, alongside

Highway 17 Route 17, or Highway 17 can refer to the following roads: For the roads named "A17", see list of A17 roads. International * European route E17 * European route E017 Australia * Brisbane Valley Highway, Queensland * D'Aguilar Highway, Queenslan ...

in Scotts Valley, was leased to southern California developer

Glenn Holland Harold Glenn Holland (1918-2002) was a developer from Arcadia, California, USA, who established the first amusement parks franchise, Santa's Village. Early life Holland grew up during the Great Depression and his parents died before his eightee ...

. He had already developed

Santa's Village (Lake Arrowhead) SkyPark at Santa's Village is an outdoor adventure park with year-round mountain biking, hiking, fly fishing and open air activities in the Skyforest section of Lake Arrowhead, California. It opened on December 2, 2016, on the site of the former S ...

in 1955, in San Bernardino County, and would later build a third in East Dundee, Illinois, becoming

Santa's Village AZoosment Park Santa's Village Amusement & Water Park (formerly known and colloquially referred to this day as simply Santa's Village) is a theme park in East Dundee, Illinois. It was originally built by Glenn Holland, who also built two other Santa's Villages, ...

. The grand opening was May 30, 1957, with Danish native Carl Hansen in the role of Santa Claus and Alma Ragon as Mrs. Claus. Carl Hansen went on to star in

KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television S ...

television's ''Hocus Pocus The Clown and Magician.'' The main rides were a bobsled, a spinning Christmas tree and Santa's Express train. There was also a petting zoo, a huge Jack-in-the-Box and equally large Santa's boot, and an Alice in Wonderland hall of mirrors. There was also a frozen candy cane striped North Pole. All the workers dressed like elves. In August 1966, Holland sold to developer Noorudin Billawala. In 1977, the Santa's Village Corporation filed for bankruptcy, and in 1979 the park closed for good. In 1990

Borland International Borland Software Corporation was a computer technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was the development and sale of software development and software deployment products ...

purchased the land as their world headquarters. The park had its own freeway exit off Highway 17, and as of 2023, the freeway exit signs still read "Santa's Village Road".

References

External links

History of Scotts Valley Santa's Village
{{Defunct Amusement Parks in California 1957 establishments in California 1979 disestablishments in California Defunct amusement parks in California Santa Claus Amusement parks opened in 1957 Amusement parks closed in 1979