Santa’s Village - Jefferson, NH

I remember as a child the excitement of our yearly trip to Santa's Village in New Hampshire. A place dedicated to the imagination of children. It was a short drive for those of us living in Maine.

On one such trip as a child we have one of our funniest family stories. We stopped at a rest stop on the way and my father used the outhouse bathroom. These are the old dug hole toilets surrounded by a small building.

My father accidentally dropped his wallet in the latrine! All our vacation money literally down the toilet. How to retrieve and salvage the vacation was now in play.

The depth from the toilet seat to the waste was about 5 ft, too far to reach in and grab (I know, disgusting). My father had an idea to hold my brother by his legs and lower him into it to grab it. Mom was not amused, not a good idea.

To shorten the story, my father was able to call a sewer pump guy who came to the site and pumped the latrine and recover the wallet. My next memory of the event was my father washing the money (in a legal way), and hanging it out to dry.

Vacation saved! What a relief. The rest of the trip was much less memorable than that great story. And really it's all about the stories we remember,

Anyway, fast forward to today. This is still a great place to take kids. I took my kids there when they were young and now, when I take an annual trip to Maine with the grandkids, I take them.

Admission price is a reasonable $45.00, for a day's fun of amusement rides, shows, and a water park. That's a bargain today. Especially since, for a small child, this is like Disneywold (maybe better) at a 1/3 the cost.

Here are some pictures and videos of the fun:

So where's the reindeer?

This big rabbit was around when I was a kid

Oh there's the reindeer!

I can't believe I ate 5 gingerbread cookies.... Don't tell mom.

Oh no! I'm going to lose those cookies!

Santa's sleigh in the sky

Bah! Humbug!

Yes! Antique cars! How come I got the back seat?

Ok! Now for some fun videos.

Here we are waiting for the gates to open. They make it fun for for the kids. My granddaughter enjoyed it:

Time for my favorite, the flume ride:

Bubby and I on the roller coaster;

This was fun! Like my camera work? The worker at the bottom was impressed:

And as we left there was a conversation with Rudolph:

Santa's Village has not lost its relevance over the decades. The owners have done an excellent job making this an affordable and incredibly fun place for families with young kids. And no, they're not paying me to advertise for them. This is an unbiased opinion.