528 Presidential Hwy, Jefferson, NH 03583

A new found favorite! If you haven’t been but have been wondering if Santa’s Village is for you and your little mover(s) keep reading but in short: this really is an all ages place.

To get to Santa’s Village is fairy easy with GPS and the route is BEAUTIFUL. It is well worth the two hour (from Gray, ME) drive! There’s a lot of parking, either right outside the park or across the street, which is where we ended up. We arrived around 11, which is about an hour and a half after they open, and we ended up parking way in the back of the rocky lot. You do have to purchase tickets ahead of time and 3 and under is FREE. It’s $47 for ages 4 and up! Walking up to ticketing, your child(ren) can stop and talk to Rudolph. This is an actual person hidden from guests view; I thought this was neat! Now, I can’t describe every little thing inside Santa’s Village (because theres so much) but I will however touch on things I noticed, what we did ride, etc.

Upon entering, there is about a dozen gift shops, all with a clever Christmas pun name. As far as amusement park prices go, it wasn’t too too bad. With that said we only stopped at a few shops for a one or two things and bought only one ride picture. Among these shops is Elf University, stop in and grab a punch card. This punch card is used around the park on “hidden” elves with a letter of the alphabet. We were so excited that we just kind of forgot about this but I know that when you turn it at the end of the day you get some sort of prize.

Line wait times are a BREEZE. I don’t think we were ever in line for more than 30m at MOST. Rides are all labeled with a colored peice of tape and if your child is wearing that color bracelet, given to them by staff at ticketing, they can ride! With that said, my 1yo could and did ride most if not all the rides my 2 and 5yo did! We didn’t ride every single ride but I didn’t see a single ride that looked “intense” or scary and that’s saying a lot because my 5yo does not do rides well. Some of the rides we did (including what my 1yo could have done or did), Skyway Sleigh, The Great Humbug Adventure, Santa’s Express Train, Reindeer Carousel, The Little Drummer Boy, and Little Elf Flying School. There were even more rides that we didn’t get too and as a passerby I’m pretty sure all three of my kids could have gone on if we had the time. I’ve included at the end of this post, in the slideshow of pictures, from their website, a picture list of the rides with the height/age minimums!

There are SO MANY photo op spots. Just off the top of my head, there’s the Easter bunny, frosty the snowman, cupcake seats, elves, Santa’s Home, and an Elf house! A must see is the reindeer. Yes. THE reindeer. Inside their barn are cute little games, like toss the ring on the antler, a skee ball type game and a couple other games like that. It’s also a shop with reindeer theme products; stuffies, Keychain, etc.

There’s a shop where your child can get a ring made of reindeer nails all for the price of a smile! In the gingerbread house, you can make your own gingerbread man. I’m unsure of what the shop was called, but another cute shop let you “live like an elf for a day” and looking in you could make your own t-shirt and basically be a elf/Santa’s helper!

Youre gunna wanna bring your bathing suit and towels because there is giant water park inside Santa’s Village. I wish we spent more time here. Like a whole lot more time. The elves (the people who work in this area) went above and beyond. They were involved in water play activities and they were very friendly and entertaining! Part of the water park is like a splash pad type thing, however it does hold water and is an ich or two deep. I brought my kids life jackets but they really didn’t need them. In the same area is a deeper end of the “pool” but again doesn’t get very deep. This side has three or four slides for littles to slide into the water. My daughter could stayed in this area forever. My sons got cold quick but despite that they loved the water while they were in. There is not a lot of space for sitting in the area. The changing building is fairly big and there wasn’t any wait for us. Another part of the water park is one of those playground type of water areas. It’s yeti themed and water is nonstop and you’re guaranteed to get wet no matter where you play here. My kids do not like these kinds of water parks but I did notice how pack it was compared to the (wadling) “pool.” I hope next year they try it out because it looked FUN.

Ya know what was one of my favoritest thing? A playground. Yes. A plain old playground. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in any amusement park. It was a nice break to just play on a familiar thing. Again wish we had more time to play on it.

As I mentioned we got there at about 11 and we stayed until close which was 5pm. I thought this would be plenty of time to see and do everything. I was so so wrong. We were literally planning our next visit on our walk back to the car. If im being honest, we are planning a trip back and staying in the area so we can hit up the park for two days, with one of those days being spent mostly in the water park and visiting all the shops.

The staff, or the elves, are so so sweet and they are in character when speaking to your children. We talked to a few and my children thought it was so cool to “talk to real elves!” I suggest a wagon or a stroller with storage! You can bring in your own food, which was super helpful for us and I assume it’d be good for others as well. Rides, shops and attractions are all easy to find using the map, which I’ve included a picture of at the end of this post, in the slideshow. Also restating how quickly you can ride a ride because the lines are just not that long, which is convenient when you have impatient little movers.

Outside the gate is sock (or boot) shaped climb and slide play area. I first was going to let my 2yo go up but it’s fairly high and to climb up you use narrow ladders and the landings are fairly cramped. I was not about to try and climb up after him if and when he inevitably got too scared. Luckily, the smaller kiddos can use the smaller slide and only a few steps up. THE photo op spot, that you’ve probably seen a dozen times is also here outside the ticketing.

With the rides being so so accommodating, I would say Santa’s Village is for any age. And honestly if your child is under 3, they’re free so you don’t really have anything to lose. I suggest getting there at opening and staying until closing if you want/plan on doing everything and not feeling rushed. Or make it a weekend trip. I don’t really have any complaints, unless you count too much to do as a bad thing. There are smoke areas, rest areas, play areas, it really has it all. The walking paths are easy and my giant wonderfold had no issue, other than all 3 of my kids inside was HEAVY. If you visit, or have visited in the past, let me know what you love, what you skip, your favorite shop, I want to know!