Santa's Village Review

Santa’s Village Review

Today we visited Santa’s Village in Jefferson, NH. This Christmas Yule Time theme park is located on NH Rt 2. and is about 45 miles from North Conway, NH and about 70 miles from Danforth Bay Camping Resort (DBCR) from where we started. Even though this theme park was quite a distance in both time and miles (about 1 hour and ½ in the car from DBCR), the views of the Presidental Mountain Range made the miles and the time fly by.

Parking & Admission

The park itself has plenty of free parking. Admission for ages 4-64 is $21. Children under 4 is free. We did not have any discount coupons (nor do I know of any). The park overall is very clean. The bathroom near the main entrance could use some extra soap and detergent but others within the park were spotless.

When you enter the park you are introduced to the Elf-abet game. With this unique and clever game the kids are given a card and the instruction to find 26 ceramic elves within the park and then have the card punched with the puncher that each elf is holding. At the end each child and adult receives an small prize.

Grounds
The grounds were very well maintained and clean. Little penguin statues (similar to the one in DBCR’s family lounge) serve as trash containers. Lots of well kept and watered flowers graced the landscaping along with a thick natural forest throughout one section of the park. Also a man made stream (I assume) flows through the center of the park into a small little pond with fish. This park offers plenty of shade and benches strategically located near the rides.

Rides

Some of the favorite rides included Rudy’s Rapid Transit Coaster (today it was run twice around), Skyway Sleigh Monorail, Santa’s Express train, and the Humbug Laser Tag Hunt ride.

Some rides even though marked appropriate for ages 2 and above (with a parent) are clearly not recommended. We took our 2 year old on the Yule Log Ride (water flume) and the drop was a little bit more than expected.

Santa’s Village has a traditional ferris wheel which from the top provides a splendid view of the White Mountains Presidential Range.

Food & Refreshments

For theme parks, the food is very reasonable priced. To save a few dollars and have more of a variety you can pack up and bring in your own picnic lunch. There are plenty of picnic tables which many coolers were stored. Several of the picnic tables are located in a nice semi-private woodsy setting. We had our lunch at Nick’s Pizza Emporium. A full size 14” pepperoni pizza cost $10.00 and was very good and filling. Drinks run about $1.50. The kids also decorated their own large gingerbread cookie ($2.16) at the Sugar n’ Spice Bake Shop. I got to sample my daughter’s left overs and the cookie was indeed quite excellent.

How does it compare to Storyland?

The big question we had from our friends and seasonal neighbors was how does this compare to Storyland? First of all, I believe that Santa’s Village is slightly smaller than Storyland. Storyland offers 21 rides and I believe Santa’s Village offers the same. There seems to be more shade at Santa’s Village. We went during peak season on a prime weather day and the crowds were much less at Santa’s Village. We arrived at 10AM and finished up around 3:30PM (kids rode on all the rides with not much waiting). The gift shops are much better at Storyland. The staff is very friendly at both places. There is skee-ball and a few amount of games at Santa’s Village (I don’t believe there are any games at Storyland).

Recommendation

Overall, this was a refreshing change from one of favorites – the Storyland Park in Glen, NH. Like Storyland, this park is geared for ages 3 to 12. Children older than this may be somewhat bored. This park is small enough that you can see all the sites in about 6 hours. We got there around 10AM, left and 4PM, and had a nice dinner in N. Conway before the dinner rushed arrived and before our 2 year old has his typical melt-down.