Santa's Land USA — Attraction in Putney

Santa's land USA is a historical blast of nostalgia, warm and welcoming from the moment, you enter the gift shop, greeted by Santa Claus and or a staff member your transported to Christmas Eve by the slight smell of balsam wood, and a glowing fire burning warmly in the large fireplace. Greeted by the glow of Christmas lights over head as soon as the little ones enter the store their excitement of the enchanting world they are entering is already bubbling over. We strolled thought the hall of blue lights to the ohs and awe's of our children watching the Christmas magic turn constantly bickering siblings into well behaved excited children well the air was crips this bothered no one as we head to Santa's bridge where mistletoe was hung with care by Santa's elves giving the perfect opportunity for a cute Christmas photo for lovers of all ages, a cross the bridge the first house will be to your left a sweet little scene of elves at work with Santa close by, toys and books filling the shelves getting ready for Christmas Eve and the long journey to all the boys and girls, slightly up the hill like a noble guardian of the little village a head proudly stands Rudolph as he has always stood since the opening of the park, a old friend I remember from my own childhood;past Rudolph the village proper starts with a school house where my little ones wrote letters to Santa (with help of course) and placed them in Santa's mail box's for his helper to pick up that night. Past the school house to the left was the restroom just in time for the younger of the two, the next house on the tour housed a beautiful display of penguins and polar bear, we spent some time roaming the small village looking at ever little thing we could find stopping at the candy cane cupboard for a little snack of fresh warm popcorn and a glass of hot chocolate before moving on to the first ride of the day a fantastic carousel that I learned was originally from Coney Island and that the new owner had gotten for the park the kids loved running around it and picking the best horse sure that theirs was going to be the fastest as they raced around the stage up and down with high screeches and load laughter of pure joy that only the truly innocent possess, quick ride on the little cars and small train the excited anticipation of the big red slide radiating off of them like a glowing light as we stepped in to the old train station to warm our freezing hands near the old cast iron stove well a miniature train set buzzed a round a peaceful snow covered ground. Then off to the red slide, jumping down on burlap sacks they raced down at what seemed like lighting speed and racing up the large hill with such speed this mother could only hope it would mean and early night for them. With a few more heart racing ride of flying down the hill on brown magic bags sailing over a bumpy sea of red we finally persuaded them to move on and see the other buildings and fun things before the end of the day past the slide is a little read building with a winter village and farther past that a fun house if I had thought getting them off the slide was roughy I was in for a surprise as they ran in and out of the fun house about a million time getting to the spinning drum laying on it and sliding and trying to run all the fun things I remember doing my self when I was young and my husband is still obviously young at heart if not in age because he also did the fun house a dozen times him self , near the end of the day we played a quick round of Mimi golf. It was a pleasure watching the kids...

If you are ever in the area and are looking for some place nostalgic, Christmas from when Christmas was about family, fun, that gleam of magic in your child’s eye, THIS IS THE PLACE! What a wonderful old school Christmas experience!! Great price! The food is actually delicious(the homemade chili is perfect on a cold day, really warms you up!) and the prices are even nostalgic too! I’m talking 1980s prices! The place isn’t high tech and all modern, which I honestly would not want, it’s colorful, and cheery. Wood and hand painted signs, REAl decorations you and your child will have fun spotting and saying “Santa has that too!?!?!” Magical hidden scenes in the mountain display really add to that whimsical feeling. The TRAIN RIDE was awesome! A REAL mini train! The staff is ahhhhmazing! Santa and Mrs Clause were the sweetest and so kind to my very shy child, not pushy at all, or taking her shyness as anything other than what it was. Which is huge to me and her. The giant slide was such fun and the man running it was so good with the kids, along with the school house where you write letters to Santa with a mailbox out front, the mini golf (I couldn’t believe even this was included in the small price of $35 for the three of us) fun house, and every building with elaborate decorations truly added to the experience! Honestly all the staff were so friendly, kind, helpful, genuine, and just seemed to enjoy being there! This place isn’t huge but we took our time and spent two wonderful hours enjoying ourselves. We took 100s of photos and shared them on Facebook and immediately everyone was asking about it, the photos show the magic, BUT nothing to what it’s like in person! Not even 10 minutes into the place and our daughter informed us that we need to come every single year as a new tradition, and how she cannot wait to tell her friends and teacher on Monday.

We drove over 1hr and 40 minutes to get there, to surprise our seven year old, and she said it was way worth the ride, “even a three hour ride would be worth it” which is saying something, especially coming from the queen of “are we theeerrrreeeee yet?!?!”

Do not skip this place! Do not let ANY review stating the place needs an update or an overhaul, trust me, this place is a blast from the past and every single child there was smiling ear to ear, with that magical gleam in their eye! Not one was bored, they were all saying “hurry hurry! Let’s go see this! Let’s go see that! Look over there!” With such joy and excitement!

This is the place for Christmas magic!

Oh and the gift shop has some seriously amazing goodies for quite...

I remember going when I was a kid and I found out on Christmas Eve that my dad went for the first time a couple of years after the park originally opened back in the late '50s. When my niece was born I was disappointed to learn that Santa's land had closed down as it was something everyone, myself, her maternal grandparents, her aunt, and her mother, wanted to take her to. Then this year as her folks were planning on coming out for Christmas we learned that the park had been reopened under new ownership. Plans that had been made for a Christmas event in NH on the 23rd had fallen though due to the weather and we hoped Santa's Land would still be open on Christmas Eve. Thankfully it was. The broad smile on that little two year old face just made the trip worth it to begin with, but the fact that Santa took time to play with her was such a delight. She had seen Santa before they came out so no one was all too worried about her maybe not getting to see Santa this year, but her getting to spend a little time with him on Christmas Eve just was a special thing to me at least.

What was there to do on Christmas Eve may have been a little limited due to the weather on the 23rd. The merry-go-round, the iceberg slide, and the train were about the only rides I saw open. Other rides such as a larger slide than the iceberg slide seem more seasonal, or more likely to be closed down due to snow and ice on the ground. Santa's house, the school house, the outdoor church, the model of the little engine that could, the train station, and an igloo were all open for folks to either go through or look into. Both the sweets shop and the snack stand were open, though we really didn't try either. Aside from my niece getting to see Santa the two biggest attractions for me were seeing the anamatronic display in Santa's house and the train ride. The train ride may be one of the few rides open to adults, though judging from comments made by some of the adults around me it may be enough to make one feel a little younger. For my niece the merry-go-round was probably her favorite part as she had to ride it a couple of times before she was willing to leave it.

They may be having a few growing pains having just reopened. But the current owner appears to be trying to bring it back to what it once was, a place where folks can go and b able to enjoy a little bit of Christmastime. I hope they remain open and my niece not only can visit them a number of times more in the years to come but that she is able to come back with her own son or daughter and share with them what she got...