July 15, 2012

"Santa's Village Moves South To New North Pole"

WILMINGTON 1949 — The moving of the "North Pole" a few degrees south and east has finally made it possible as well as practical, for the children of northeastern United States to visit a miniature Santa Claus village which nestles around the transplanted pole halfway up Whiteface Mountain in the heart of the Adirondacks of northern New York state at Wilmington.

This village, which was opened to the public July 1, consists of a handful of Mother Goose-style log buildings with steeply slanting, brightly colored roofs. These buildings house Santa Claus himself, his two workshops, a smithy, a miniature chapel, a post office and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard on the thirteen acres of ground which have been set aside for Santa's use. Bo-Peep, Huckleberry Finn and other familiar storybook characters as well as tame deer, goats and sheep wander about to the strains of music, which fill the little valley with an atmosphere of makebelieve suddenly become real. The animals follow visitors about in friendly fashion, begging for the crackers which the children feed them, and at the far end of the village there are even real reindeer with beautifully forked antlers.

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North Pole

Rare indeed is the Child who doesn't attempt to figure out which is Donner, Blitzen, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Vixen, Dasher or Cupid and try to get the reindeer to answer to these names. At one side of the miniature village is the smith, for the smith who takes care of the animals and delights in telling stories about them. Just outside the stop are the ponies which youthful visitors may ride around the village, led by Huckleberry Finn, who acts as one of Santa's helpers. Nearby is a pond on which a small flock of ducks swim serenely. A rustic bridge separates the pond from the hundred year old water wheel, now painted bright red and yellow, which revolves majestically as the water flows out of the pond against its paddles. The bridge leads to a tiny chapel where over the entrance is a statue of St. Nicholas. Inside, in back of the altar, is a scene of Bethlehem, portraying the birth of Christ. The revolving water wheel furnishes power for the workshop next door where Santa's helpers, gnomes and elves in colorful medieval-type costumes, are kept busy making many of the hand-painted educational and circus toys which they put on display at the other end of the building.

Ticonderoga Sentinel 

Aurora Ramsay works in the Brewster Research Library at the Adirondack History Center Museum in Elizabethtown.

ADIRONDACK HISTORY CENTER MUSEUM
ESSEX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO Box 428, 7590 Court Street
Elizabethtown, NY 12932
www.adkhistorycenter.org
Research Queries: research@adkhistorycenter.org
General Information: echs@adkhistorycenter.org 

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North Pole

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