all photos (embiggenable)
‘TIS THE SEASON, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, so the wife and I and our friend Robert went to the North Pole, a little village-just a few minutes away from our house-located in North Pole , NY., the home of Santa’s workshop.
North Pole, NY is an actual place with a ZIP code and a Post Office-you can send Xmas cards to friends and family postmarked NORTH POLE. Nestled on the low north side of Whiteface mountain, the village contains 15 buildings and handful of kiddie-sized amusement park type rides. The village was founded in 1949 and is considered to be the world’s first theme park. Its peak attendance day was in July, 1951 when 14,000 Santa seekers showed up. My first visit was in the summer of 1958(ish). Somewhere in the family archives is a picture of me peeking around the very same North Pole pictured above.
It is truly somewhat of a miracle and, most assuredly, a labor of love that has preserved and kept this 75 year old time capsule alive and kicking. It should have a National Historic Landmark designation.