Seems that on top of the New kids cames at he raindeer barn and the refurbished and extended car ride there will be an even begger show solection ths year.

The park will run its nromal Tinkerdoodle Chiristmas and Jingle Jamberee. they will return the "Once apon a christmans" show from last christmas. Teh park will intraduce 2 more shows. one show will be a walk around show called "A Holiday Hollybaloo" and a small stage show called "Jingle all the way"

now Jingle all the way is slated as taking place at the Sugarplum Stage. this stage didn't exist last year. i have no cluse were thsi stage will be located I wil try to get that info from the park.

Following my visit this weekend, here are some quick updates about changes to the park this year.

"Once Upon a Christmas" follows the same structure as the show presented last Christmas, but the song selection has changed. The cast consisted of better singers and perfomers at Chrismastime, but the show is still a good attraction for the park in my opinion. Children and families enjoyed it, and it received a great deal of applause. The snowfall is an audience favorite.

"Jingle All the Way" features two performers from the main show singing on an outdoor gazebo/stage next to the Jingle Bell Theatre. It was a fun interactive show aimed at getting kids to participate with the songs and games. Again, the kids enjoyed it.

I did not see "Holiday Holly Baloo" which presumably featured the other two perfomers from the main show.

The antique car ride has been rerouted to widen a walkway. It now features a waterfall and a flooded roadway through which the cars drive, a police station and antique police car, an antique tow truck, and a car wash complete with steam and bubbles through which the cars drive. There is a great deal of new landscaping along the route. The renovated antique car ride is a nice improvement over the typical ride around a grassy area that they used to have.

Over at the caribou barn they are now offering "Reindeer Games." Thus far this consists of throwing a ball through a hole in a board which is painted to look like a reindeer and throwing rings onto the antlers of faux reindeer. It was very simplistic, and I was expecting more since it was mentioned on the website as "new," however, behind the reindeer barn, they are constructing a maze of boulders and shrubs. Perhaps there is more to come.

As always, the staff is very freindly, the park is well kept and nicely landscaped with lots of flowers, prices are reasonable, the pizza, gingerbread cookies, and fudge are the best, and the ride to get there is beautiful.

Thanks for the update. I didn't expect anything more then you discribed for the games. There for the kids mostly and I expected them to be easyer. If you want a harder game there is a roller race game in the Fire house now.

I'm glad to hear they did so much with the car ride. give them a little somthign diferant and worth seeing a few times.

as for past the Barn the barn is the entrance plaza so to speack that will lead to an intirely new area for the park. eventualy they will be constructing Santa's Workshop at the top of teh Hill there.

My disappointment was more in the execution than the games themselves. They were just there for kids to play with. There were balls and rings haphazardly laying around, and no supervision. Some kids had stickers saying "I played reindeer games," but there was no one giving them out much of the time. There was no supervision or organization. I believe a better approach would have been to have an employee acting as a leader much like at a summer camp to create organization, and more importantly, create enthusiasm and hand out stickers or some other cheap prize on a consistent basis.

The "roller race game" as you called it is not what you think. You mentioned this before, so I was expecting a game much like the horse races at many parks where you roll a ball into holes to advance your horse (or other racing object). Instead it was a water gun game much like the old shoot the water in the clown's mouth game found at many carnivals. In this case the water advanced a fire truck to the finish line. It cost $1. The roller type game would have been much more fun in my opinion, because there is more action involved in playing.

That's right it is a water one. Sotry land has the roller ball one. Sorry abotu that I was mixing them up. personaly I woudl like to see both Story and Santa's village get a few more games. Sounds wierd dsaying it since I am normaly sayign Canobie and SFNE has to many of them.

I get your point them I'll watch out for that when I visit the park If it's still goign on I'll write the owner. she is realy good about addressing this sort of thing. I'm really interested in seeing the new car ride setup.

Yes, I have contacted the park on a few occasions, and Elaine is great at responding personally and meaningfully. I really appreciate that she takes the time to listen to visitors and seriously consider what they say. On the flip side, she has also given me reasonable explanations for some of my concerns and made me see things from the park's point of view at times. I wish more parks would respond to their visitors like Santa's Village does. Lake Compounce and Hersheypark also have offered similar personal replies but many other parks just send form letters. Unfortunately, I rarely receive any reply from Canobie let alone one with such a sense of customer appreciation and respect that I receive and appreciate from Santa's Village, Lake Compounce, and Hersheypark.

I've been in the same Situation. The only way I can get anything form canobie to use at say Nor Eaaster is to personaly call the park and basicly corner them. Storyland has been back and forth with this. Futown is pretty bad about returnign E-mails. Palice playland is good about it, Quassy is ok but I normaly get poor info that wasn't regarding my question.

I think we woudl see far more out os Santa;s village if they made more money. but there further away and in turn don't get the atention Sotry land gets. But the Christmas even has became verry populer and really helps them out.

^I think your last paragraph is correct, however Santa's Village does an amazing job at combining traditional and unique rides and shows into a true theme park that appears to be geared toward children but offers a surprising amount of entertaining attractions for all ages. I guess it's because of their remote location (it really is in the middle of no where for someplace that relies on attracting thousands of people) that I'm astounded at how well attended the park is and how well they execute their business plan. I mean, who would think that such a small and remote park could have a nice little coaster and log flume, and over a dozen other unique family rides, a decent 3-D movie, a fun interactive dark ride, a herd of caribou, several specialty shops and food outlets, and a completely themed and nicely landscaped setting?

Wel teh landscaping is one of the most welcomed additins of the last 5 years.

I jsut hope in time they will be able to get there mname out there more and get more peopel to the park. they are sposerign the Summer events page on wzid.com this year. good more in my mind.