Santa's Village in Dundee, Illinois opened on Memorial Day in 1959, just 4 years after
Disneyland. In 2004 Santa's Village is celebrating the 45th anniversary of their
opening. It has undergone many changes and many face lifts in its 45 years of
service, each change adding a little more fun to the park.
As a child and young teen I remember going to Santa's Village at least 2
times every summer. We lived about 20 minutes away so it wasn't that big of a
hassle for my parents to take us. I remember seeing a lot of famous television
personalities there, such as Bozo the clown, Ray Raynor, and other famous people
from around the Chicago land area. My sister and I were always excited when we
knew that we were going to go to Santa's Village. We knew that we had a day of fun and
games in store for us that we always enjoyed.
Since this amusement park was made for young teens, children, and fun for the
whole family, it meant that were would be able to ride any of the rides we
wanted to. Some of the rides we enjoyed a lot included:
- Bumper car races
- The sleigh ride that took you around a Christmas village.
- The horse and carriage that pulled you around a small track.
- A monorail that went over the top of the park, providing a breathtaking
view of the surroundings.
- The space ship ride that made you feel like you were in a shuttle in outer
space.
- The roller coaster that went straight up in the air for 30 feet then curled
around the tower until you were at the bottom.
- The zipper (tilt a whirl) that would spin around making you feel like you
were going to fly out of your seat.
- A fire truck that pulled behind it 2 trailers with seats and fire hoses,
and you would get to put out a fire in a small model home.
In the late 1970's Santa's Village changed its name to Three World Of Fun,
featuring Old MacDonald's Farm, Coney Island, and
Santa's World. The name change wasn't a big hit with the visitors to the park.
When they changed the name the basically split the park into 3 smaller parks.
Old MacDonald's Farm was setup as a children's petting zoo, where the
reindeer were kept until they replaced them with regular white tail deer. Other
animals in the petting zoo included goats, pigs, a peacock, and a chicken that
they had taught to play tic-tac-toe, and he always won.
Coney Island was mainly where they had all the games that you could play and
win prizes. The games included games such as ski ball, dart throw, duck pond,
and the basketball shooting game, and many more were added over the years.
The Santa's World part of the park was billed as the world of fun. This part
of the park housed all the rides and the concession stands, and it was the most
popular part of the park.
The Polar Dome Ice Arena is an ice skating rink open to the public from
September thru April.
In the very early 1980's Santa's Village expanded yet again. This time they
added a water park called Racing Rapids. The rides at Racing Rapids include:
- 2 large water slides
- Water bumper cars
- The Lazy River
- Twister Tube Slide
- Children's Fun Island
- Slidewinder Speed Water Slide
- Water Bumper Boats
- Grand Prix Go-Carts
There was only one downside that I can remember to Santa's Village and Racing
Rapids. That was having to go home at the end of the day. We always had our
memories to hold us over until we got to go to the park again, but somehow it
was always a bittersweet end to a perfect day of fun with
the family.
Source: Santa's Village. 23 Jul 2004 <http://www.santasvillageil.com/>.