Santa's Village.

A certain red-suited gent serves as the engineer of the train ride at Santa's Village.

• Rudy's Rapid Transit roller coaster
• Yule Log Flume
• Santa's Skyway Sleigh monorail
• A Tinkerdoodle Christmas 3-D presentation
• A personal meeting with Santa

Ah, the White Mountains. New Hampshire's majestic Presidential Range offers so many wonderful sights: Rugged mountain peaks poking through sun-streaked clouds, the spectacular National Forest along the Kancamagus Highway, the red and green Dodgem cars plowing into each other at Santa's Village. Too blasé to marvel at the area's natural wonders, kids prefer man-made attractions like Santa's Village. For decades, the park has been a whimsical, yet vital part of the region's warm-weather vacation offerings.
While not as old as the Flume, time appears to have almost stood still at Santa's Village. For wistful baby boomers, it is as if their grainy home movies or black and white Brownie photos come to life when they revisit the attractions with their own children.
In an era when Six Flags and Disney feature hyperactive roller coasters and multi-million dollar high-tech rides, the White Mountain park has retained its down-home charm and gentle appeal. That's not to say that its attractions have not evolved or that the park hasn't introduced some innovative new rides and shows. But Santa's Village does take pride in the sweet nostalgia it offers.
"We're still like old New Hampshire," asserts the family-owned park's Elaine Gainer, a second-generation operator. "We call ourselves a New England family tradition."
Next page: I'm Dreaming of a White Mountain