Santa's Village Jefferson, NH PTR

[mrceagle]

After a quick stop at Jefferson Fun Park, Formally Six Gun City, I made my way up to Jefferson, NH's big attraction, Santa's Village. With the rain and no crowds at For Jefferson I didn't know what to expect when I got to Santa's village. To my surprise, the parking lots were packed. Despite this the park was not overly crowded, with only short waits for the rides.

 

I had only a few goals on this trip and I had only a few hours to do them. I took some time to say hello to the parks owner, try out 2 new food items, check out the new downtown, the new Elf Lodge, and while I didn't use it, I took a look at the new water slides. I accomplished them all.

As you enter the park you are no longer welcomed by a large building. Instead, you are welcomed into a downtown area with brightly colored and very beautiful buildings that house a stroller storage, restrooms, new Elf University, and an expanded candy shop. To put a bow on it all, fresh landscaping with plenty of evergreens.

 

After a short chat with the park's owner I was off to lunch. The parks Ho Ho H20 Play structure received two companion attractions, the Joy ride slides and the new Elf lodge. The joy ride slides were installed in what was once a parking lot for a neighboring restaurant which pushed out the park's fence. The new attraction features one tower with 3 body slides. The slides were built by Proslides, and were rehabbed with White Water West's Silk tech. the combination was very impressive. The sliders were flying down the slides and having a great time.

The park pushed out their fences yet again by taking over a neighboring restaurant. The building was rehabbed and expanded. It houses a gift shop, restrooms, changing rooms, nursing rooms, and a food stand that offers pulled pork & chicken, pizza, and drinks. I opted to get the pulled pork which came with homemade potato chips. I also bought a souvenir cup which gave me free soda and slushy refills for the day. Each cost me $7.99 plus tax.

 

My other food goal was to get Ice Cream at the newly expanded Frosty's Freezer. The park used to offer pretty standard Ice Cream but now they offer homemade Ice cream made on site. The flavors are all given fun names like enjoy-mint. The mint wasn't an option on this trip but I stuck to a personal favorite - Coffee. It was some of the best Ice cream I have ever had, very creamy and great flavor. Best of all, the extremely generous portion was in the $3.50 range after tax. While there is some seating I opted to walk over to the Yule log flume and eat my ice cream on the bridge.

Between all this eating I hit rides and shows. No extra rides, but I hit all these rides once; Rudy's Rapid Transit, Skyway sleigh, Rockn' round the Christmas Tree, Yule log flume, Chimney Drop, Holly Humbug Adventure, SS Peppermint Twist, and the Santa Express.

 

I watched 2 shows - the park's staple 3D movie, a Tinkerdoodle Christmas and a new show. The new show was a Christmas lights show in the Polar Theater. The lights and displays were choreographed to the music. The show was fun to watch but was very short. It's only 10 minutes so the show is basically 4 songs. Hopefully they can expand the show a bit next season.

The park also has a handful of live shows that went on around the park. One of which is an end of day show at a small stage by the front gate. The park also operates an Animatronic show which was recently rehabbed with new figures. Love the show but there was not enough time to watch it.

 

In all it was a great afternoon at the park. I had to skip a few rides and a show but I will hit them on my next trip. A longer day will definitely be in order and I think next summer I will try out the new slides. I have been coming to the park for a long time and have seen many changes and upgrades. I think the park really hit the nail on the head with these last few upgrades. I'm sure they were the tipping point to get then in to the top 5 children's parks in 2014 Golden Ticket, and a top ranking from Trip Adviser.

 

See the full report with over 50 photos from around the park and shooting off what's new:

http://photos.newwhalom.com/2014SVreport.html

[Geauga Dog]

What a charming park! Is this one of those parks where you have to be accompanied by a child to enter since it seems a lot of it is geared towards the younger guests?

[Nrthwnd]

I think I'd be okay being there, being the "love child" of Santa and Ms. Claus....

 

BTW, the park sounds great! Christmas year 'round! Awesome concept!

 

Question: Is there a dark ride of some kind, there? Just curious, ho ho!

Proof! (TPR 2014 Scandi Tour)

[ragerunner2]

Great photos of a really nice looking family park. This and Story Land are two parks I would really like to visit. Thank you for sharing.

[mrceagle]

What a charming park! Is this one of those parks where you have to be accompanied by a child to enter since it seems a lot of it is geared towards the younger guests?

No adults can visit without a child. While the park itself is geared towards children all the rides but 1 can accommodate adults. nearly all of the rides are larger family rides. Their Flume for example has the same 45ft drop that is found on most of the Hopkins Flumes.

I think I'd be okay being there, being the "love child" of Santa and Ms. Claus....

 

BTW, the park sounds great! Christmas year 'round! Awesome concept!

 

Question: Is there a dark ride of some kind, there? Just curious, ho ho!

There there is it's a smaller dark ride. The Holly Humbug adventure is an interactive dark ride. It was build into an exciting building and is 2 levels. it uses a rarely seen barbari dark ride car. I have a picture of the building taken from the monorail in one of the photo albums.

 

it's a wonderful park very underrated. everyone talks about Story Land which is in itself a very nice park but lacks the charm of Santa's Village.

Great photos of a really nice looking family park. This and Story Land are two parks I would really like to visit. Thank you for sharing.

That seems to be the thing to do in the area. normally when I'm at one park and talk to anyone they have either gone to the other park the day before or will bo the day after. It's worth spending some time in the area . On top of Story Land and Santa's village there is also Whales Tale Water Park, Clark's Trading Post and a number natural attraction like the Flume Gorge, polar caves, Find Lost River, Just to name a few.