Santa's Village

A theme park in East Dundee, Illinois. It was originally built by Glenn Holland, who also built two other Santa's Villages, in California; one located in San Bernardino County and the other in Santa Cruz County.The Illinois park, the third to be built, was projected to be the hub of a chain of Santa's Villages across the country. However, parks planned for Richmond, Virginia and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, were never built, and the park in East Dundee became the last of its kind. The park operated as Santa's Village from 1959 until 2006, when it closed. After extensive rehabilitation, it reopened in 2011 under new ownership. Renamed Santa's Village Azoosment Park because of the shared focus on both rides and animals, the Azoosment Park has nearly twenty rides and attractions, and hundreds of exotic and farm animals in an interactive environment. For a short time in 1972 the park was named Worlds of Fun. Because of confusion with other parks with similar names, the name was changed again to Three Worlds of Santa's Village.