Santa's Village Amusement & Water Park

East Dundee, Illinois

Sitting an hour's drive to the west of Chicago, this small park has a lot of history and has been home to a lot of roller coasters. In the 1950s, Glenn Holland had the idea of franchising Christmas-themed amusement parks. After opening the first two Santa's Village parks in California, Holland opened this one in the Chicago suburbs. It was going to be the foundation for a chain of parks, but the Illinois weather caused problems for the new park. Ironically, the cold weather prevented the park from being open at Christmastime. The Chicago park ended up being the last one built. The three parks were sold in the 1960s.

The Chicago park opened in 1959. When the park's ownership changed in 1972, it was renamed Worlds of Fun. This caused problems because of the identically named park in Kansas City, so the park was renamed the Three Worlds of Santa's Village. The sections of the park were called Santa's World, Old McDonald's Farm, and Coney Island. The park closed in 2006. Five years later, it reopened under the ownership of A Zoo to You, the people that used to manage the animals at the park. At that time, the park was renamed Santa's Village Azoosment Park, but it is often written as AZoosment in signs around the park. The park changed its name to Santa's Village Amusement & Water Park in 2021.

One coaster has been added since these pictures were taken. The Farmers Fling is a SBF Visa spinning coaster that opened in May 2023. Two of the ride's cars are painted like pigs while the other two are painted like cows. Here are some of the coasters that used to operate here: