Previous page:Foley Gets a Kick out of Santa's Village
Tidings of comfort
Sometimes, we travel to discover new places, people and experiences. Other times, we delight in returning to the familiar. It's the travel equivalent of comfort food. The circa-1953 Santa's Village offers Foley and his contemporaries a chance to revisit an idealized, Currier & Ives family vacation of yore."It is like coming home," Gainer says. While the park is always adding new attractions and keeping things fresh, she adds that it takes great care safeguarding its older pieces. "For people like Mick who romanticize about their childhood, it's important that we give them the opportunity to reminisce."
That's part of the yin-yang mystique of classic amusement parks. They celebrate the high-tech, brave new world with the latest, greatest thrill rides, but reassure with the high-touch comfort of carousels, wooden roller coasters, and other living pieces of history. Add in the warm glow of its holiday theme and Santa's Village tugs at guests' heartstrings on two fronts. "There's a lot of emotion tied into theme parks and Christmas," Gainer says. "We offer a double whammy."
Christmas and wrestling myths
Despite their apparent differences, Foley sees parallels among Christmas, theme parks, and wrestling. "I think a lot of adults enjoy wrestling because they have fond memories of watching it as a kid. Like Santa's Village, it brings them back to a place of innocence."Christmas myths and wrestling's passion plays both require a suspension of belief. Up until a few years ago, the wrestling industry carefully protected its pre-fab practices. Today, the audience is in on the sham--it's like acknowledging there is no Santa Claus--but the sport remains wildly popular. Foley bridged wrestling's old-school mentality and its new attitude. For the sake of the show, he sacrificed his body in incredible displays of athleticism and outrageousness. Foley even lost part of his ear in one infamous match.
A theme park freak, Foley says that he loves riding world-class coasters, but screaming fans get in his face and make it nearly impossible to move about the parks. The low-key Santa's Village, where guests generally grant him his privacy, is Foley's safe haven.
Foley plans to continue visiting Santa's Village often but worries that his children will outgrow the park. "It was a sad day when my kids told me that they liked Hersheypark better than Santa's Village," he says with a chuckle but adds that the Christmas-themed park moved back into the number-one spot during a subsequent family trip. "I hope they're developing the same kind of love (for Santa's Village)," he says. "My wife and I are counting on going there as grandparents someday."
