Memories of Scott's Valley's Magical Santa's Village

By C. MacDonald

When I heard that Santa's Village was reopening as SkyPark at Santa's Village in Skyforest, near Lake Arrowhead, California, I thought back to a similar Santa's Village in Scotts Valley (Santa Cruz Mountains) which provided so much joy for me and my friends in the 1950s and 60s.

The beautiful tree-surrounded architectural wonder—with its log chalet-style, gingerbread structures, featuring snow roofs and huge nearby candy cane signs —was the creation of H. Glenn Holland, the same guy who had success developing the first Santa's Village near Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino County in 1955 (the year Disneyland opened). He later created a third Santa's Village near Chicago.

Holland and his compatriots provided so much fun for so many, not just with the fun architecture but the employees, dressed in holiday outfits with curl-toe elf shoes and lederhosen. Not only did gnomes, elves and Mr. and Mrs. Claus wander about but Alice and Wonderland and Little Bo Peep also roamed the 25-acre site (right off Highway 17 on Santa's Village Road) providing awe for Bay Area as well as Santa Cruz County escapees of all ages.

We ventured to Santa's Village (opened in 1957) for fun, whether it was to visit the Petting Zoo, with sheep, a burro, deer and goats or go on the fabulous, memorable rides—bobsled, train, a whirling Christmas tree or what used to be my favorite, the teacups. Talk about laughter. Once, three of my school friends and I boarded a teacup and decided to make it spin like never before. We did just that. We were having a giggly-wild time until all of us purposely cranked the center wheel so hard, it gave us the spinningest ride we'd ever been on. It spun so fast, we all got so dizzy and sick to our stomachs that we didn't ever go on that ride again. I still get vertigo just thinking about it.

I recall Santa's sleigh was pulled by four reindeer and the first Santa was played by Carl Hansen, who eventually left to gain fame as TV's Hocus Pocus clown. I remember the village being super-packed and popular when my high school classmates' garage band, Count Five, recorded ‘Psychotic Reaction,” which stunned us and the music world by becoming the number 5 song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. (The Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame later listed it as one the 500 most influential songs in Rock n' Roll history.)

But for whatever reasons, Santa's Village went through different ownership and in 1979 it shut down for good. Its giant cement mushrooms ended up in local schools; the snowfall ride regained life on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and some of its ornate structures went to scenic Sorensens Resort in the Sierra's Hope Valley.

Santa's former festive land ended up with several uses, including as a high tech company's campus. In May of 2016, UC Santa Cruz signed a 20-year lease to use part of an Enterprise Tech Center on the property for 500 workers in its business, administration, information technology and university relations units.

Whenever I drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains on Highway 17, I can't help but recall all the cool times I had at Santa's Village. And, to this day, whenever I see a Gingerbread House during the holidays, I think of Santa's Village and all the sweet times I was lucky enough to share with my friends, my family and thousands more, who have the same wonderful memories of this truly magical place that made the Santa Cruz Mountains so special.