A Visual Guide to View-Master Scenic North Pole and Santa-Themed Reels
A checklist for collectors and obsessives with some fun facts about Santa-themed amusement parks of the past.
With the Christmas holiday fast approaching, I thought it might be fun to do a visual list of View-Master reels that highlight Santa and Christmas-themed tourist traps and amusement parks (and I was shocked to discover how many still exist — I link to the ones that do below). These are scenic reels only, but I hope to create a much longer post next week detailing all the kids’ and diorama Christmas reels (of which there are many!).
Oddly enough, many of these scenic reels are somewhat hard to find and command a little more money than the average reel. I’m including photos and links to eBay if you’re really desperate to have them, but, personally, I’m going to wait until after the holidays to fill in any of my gaps in this subcollection in order to curb costs.
Here they are in list format. Please let me know if I missed any in the comments below.
Single Reels of mid-century tourist traps of North Poles and Santa’s Villages
(reel number, name and year issued, if known and a hot link to an example)
SP-9058, Home of Santa’s Workshop, North Pole, New York, issued 1951
268, Santa’s Village, New Hampshire, issued 1955
Three-Reel Sets of mid-century tourist traps of North Poles and Santa’s Villages
Santa’s Workshop, North Pole, NY, issued 1956
Released as 89-ABC and then as A660, in 1958
This place is still going strong!
Lake Arrowhead and Santa’s Village, California, issued 1957
Released as 213-ABC (hard to find) and as packet A184 (maybe, I haven’t seen one online or in real life)
Santa’s Village (compilation), issued 1963
Released as packet A135 and featured Santa’s Village locations in Skyforest, Calif.; Santa Cruz, Calif., and East Dundee, Illinois.
Did you know that Santa’s Village was the first franchised amusement park? The three locations featured in this packet were the first three to open! There’s even a fun YouTube doc about Santa’s Villages:
North Pole Colorado, Home of Santa’s Workshop, issued 1965
Packet number A333, Ed. A
Updated and reissued as A333 Ed. B in 1976
Reissued again as blister pack no. 5057
Updated and reissued one more time as blister pack 5362 in 1987
This place is still open and operating!
Santa’s Village, East Dundee, Illinois, issued in 1972
Packet no. A553 Ed. A.
Perhaps the most popular Santa’s Village location, it scored it’s own three-reel packet in 1972. It stayed open until 2006.
Santa’s Land Park & Zoo, Cherokee, N.C., issued 1978
Packet No. A895 Ed. A
Did you have a favorite Santa-themed tourist trap as a kid? Have you visited any of the places listed her? Give me the scoop in the comments!
And if you liked this post, be sure to smash that ❤️ button! Thanks for reading and hope your December is going well.
Well done on getting them all together in 1 article. I'm going to keep this and read it again (and watch the video) at xmas.
A fantastic write-up. Have many of these, but also do not remember ever seeing A184. Santa's Village East Dundee, Illinois is also a tough one to add. See it now and then, but the asking price is always too high. Looking forward to Part B.