We were thinking of taking our son to visit Santa's Land USA and Spray Foam House in Putney, Vermont.It's one of those places where I think I may have gone as a child, but I have no conclusive evidence or specific memories....
From an article describing Santa's Land:
"You won't find a brochure for it easily in Vermont (you might instead see flyers for Santa's North Pole in NY or Santa's Village in NH). The official Vermont Attractions Map does not list it. It has no billboards. Even the publicity material for Santa's Land USA's home town, Putney, VT -- which carries glowing descriptions of local businesses like Basketville and the Putney Food Co-op -- fails to mention Santa's Land USA. The only reason we even knew about this place is that one of us visited it in 1985.
There must be some sort of elvin magic at work. The entire attraction, which covers many acres of pine-shaded woods, appears to be run by five people: the kindly lady in the gift shop, the guy who sprints between the Sweet Shoppe and Candy Cane Cupboard, the train engineer, the kiddie ride attendant, and Santa. And this is on a summer weekend.
Mysteries abound. The first thing that catches our eye when we enter the park through the fairyland cottage gift shop is a huge blob of discolored white stuff lying near a little pond. What is it? Fake iceberg? A wad of funnel cake that fell out of Valhalla? Only Santa knows.
The goats in the Santa's Petting Zoo are friendly, and the Sweetheart covered bridge is in good repair. The lights are out in the Elves' Home. And the TV in the kid's video theater in Santa's Arcade shows nothing but electric snow (but perhaps the tape has just ended). There's a Nativity Scene of statues, displays of elf dummies at work, a Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer statue photo op."
Also: it's open all year round! I'll report more after we actually go, although with all the holiday events scheduled, we may not make it until 2012.
This is a wonderful blog! I was wondering if you could edit one of your Department 56 Resources. You have Department 56 Corner on there but the link does not work (looks like there is a "," instead of a "." after the "www". ( http://www.department56corner.com )Thank you so much and keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really really cool. One of those off the beaten path places that time has almost forgotten.. in a good way. Thanks for sharing this.
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