Rimforest

I was distressed, need I say DISTRESSED! when I saw what has happened to Santa's Village. I have such fond memories of the place from when I was a child and from when I took my children there. I wanted to take my grandson to see it and when I got there the place was a wreck. Can you tell me are they refurbishing it or demolishing it?

demolishing

Santa's Village closed nearly ten years ago, but many of it's buildings were still in use through 2004. Don't know the future of the place as far as the 3 or 4 nice buildings that are still standing. Hopefully we will have more summer meadow concerts. They were moved out this year to Snow Valley. Hope they come back to Santa's Village, as that is closer for most people. Santa's Village (as an amusement park) will never return.

My girls USE to dance there every year at Christmas. Now it looks like a dump!

Thanks for the update you guys

It's a tragic loss that Santa's village will never return

Remembering Santa's Village

SKYFOREST - On the "Rim of the World," between Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs, a giant candy cane looms behind stacked timber like a ghost of Christmas past.
The candy cane looks eerily out of place, surrounded by West Coast Timber's logging operation. But during the four-plus decades that parents hauled their children up the Rim of the World Highway to visit Santa's Village, candy-themed architecture was part of one of the San Bernardino Mountains' most distinctive businesses.

Santa's Village was the image of the North Pole as reflected in the mirror of Southern California-style marketing. Opened in 1955 - the same year as Disneyland - the amusement park was advertised during cartoon shows as a mountain getaway for children growing up in asphalt suburbs.

"I went as a kid. I went with my nieces and nephews," reminisced 38-year-old Theresa Maile, who now works as Rim Family Services' office manager. "Everything smelled good. Everything tasted good. It was like a little fantasy land."

The park closed in 1998. While open, Santa's Village was a monument to the concept of Christmas as portrayed in Rankin/Bass Productions' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," if not the holiday's Christian underpinnings.

The amusement park had live reindeer, kiddie rides and Santa Claus, or at least one of his helpers, who worked whenever the park was open.
"I helped Santa Claus taking pictures. Sometimes, I was in the pictures," recalled Michelle Aaron, 41, of Lake Arrowhead. "I'd pick up the kids in his lap and give them a lollipop."

Although the business climate of the 1990s wrote the end for Santa's Village, remnants, such as the giant candy cane, survived even the voracious flames of the Old Fire in 2003. Another survivor is J. Putnam Henck, the 88-year-old former owner and operator of the place. He lives about a mile west.

On three occasions, Henck himself donned a red suit and fulfilled Santa's duties.

"It didn't work out because all the employees were peeking through the window to see the boss," Henck said.

There were also times when park security had to give fake Santas the boot.

"We'd have to throw them out of the park because they would say we had a fake Santa and they were the real Santa," Henck said.

Henck and his family moved to Skyforest in 1923. As a boy, he cut his teeth in the construction business by helping his father with painting projects and woodcutting. Henck earned a degree in civil engineering from UC Berkeley in 1940 and in 1954, when the construction of Santa's Village began, he was the general contractor.

As detailed in Henck's book, "From the Memories of Putnam Henck: (Plus a Little Bit of History)," Santa's Village featured a train ride, Christmas tree ride, the Pumpkin Coach, burro ride, and a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

Ewald Burmeister, 63, of Calimesa worked with the reindeer at the park during the summers and weekends of 1958 and 1959.

"My primary job was hitching the mules in the morning," Burmeister said. "The reindeer thing was pretty simple. We hooked a couple reindeer to the sleigh, and what a lot of people don't know was that there was a motor under the sleigh."

Burmeister's wife, LaVern, also worked at Santa's Village in 1959 and 1960, but they didn't meet until later.

Henck believes that during the park's lifetime, Santa's Village employed about 5,000 people.

"Back in the old days, it seemed like every kid who went to Rim (of the World) High School went there," said Lewis Murray, executive director of the Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce.

Skyforest is home to the first of Henck's three Santa's Villages. The others, one near Santa Cruz and the third in Illinois, are also closed.

Money was often tight at the parks, Henck said.

In 1980, Henck and his wife, Pamela, moved from San Bernardino to an apartment at the rear of Santa's Village. Although Henck spent most of his professional life as a contractor, he and his wife took over management of Santa's Village after they moved on site.

"It was a fun thing to do. It was hard work, but just meeting the people and seeing pleasure on kids' faces" was worthwhile, Henck said.

There, the couple shepherded Santa's Village until it closed.

Henck cited two business factors that spelled the end for Santa's Village. First, the proliferation of cable channels made it too hard to reach his target market.

Secondly, children of the 1990s were more involved in sports and extracurricular activities than previous generations, leaving little time for families to travel from the suburbs to a small park in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Henck said he's not disappointed by the park's closure. In his professional life, he grew accustomed to spending a lot of energy on a project, then putting it all behind him for another job.

"The reason is, when you're a general contractor, you put your heart and soul into a job for year or two, but when it's over, you move on and do something new," he said.

S.B. Sun 12/23/2006

For anyone who wants a photographic trip down memory lane I found this website. Enjoy
http://www.alamedainfo.com/santas_village_ca.htm

I remember Santa's Village well - went starting in 1950's. We had a place in Twin Peaks and really enjoyed going. The Fresno State football coach, worked there when he was young - the Raindeer ride - use to race after hours. I have been able to take my children back. Am sure going to miss Mrs. Clauses snacks and dips. Such a wonderful time, a more simple time. I sure thank our parents giving us these memories. We have the pictures. Too bad the next generation, my grandchildren will not be able to enjoy.