One of the most fun times that my son had is one that he doesn’t even remember because he was too young.

Being my New Year’s baby, he was approaching both his first Christmas and his first birthday that December Saturday when we decided to visit Santa’s Village in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Southern California isn’t exactly known for its wintery weather, so if you wanted to experience a bit of a chill to get in the mood for the holidays, the mountains were a good place to go.

Santa’s Village was a kiddies’ amusement park that opened in 1955. It was a huge family resort destination for decades until it finally closed its doors in 1998. I’ve since read that the property has been bought and that it might reopen this year, but my “baby” is way too old to enjoy it today and we now live hundreds of miles away instead of one hour by car.

He liked the little one so much, we tried the BIG one!

Next Stop – The Petting Zoo

He loved the animals.

It was finally time to visit the big man himself – SANTA CLAUS! How did that go?

Let’s just say that Santa wasn’t on the top of the list for favorite activities that day.

Even though Michael was too old to want to go back to Santa’s Village in 1998, I was sad to hear that it was closing down. It brought days of wonderful fun and learning to thousands upon thousands of little children during its 43 year history.