Santa Claus Land Construction Plans for Santa Claus Land were first conceived as a retirement project by Louis J. Koch, a former industrialist from
Evansville, Indiana. In 1941, Koch visited the town of
Santa Claus, Indiana. Upset that children came to a town named Santa Claus only to be dismayed when
Santa Claus wasn't there, Koch developed the idea for a park where children could have fun and visit Santa year-round. Although initial construction plans were delayed by
World War II, construction of Santa Claus Land eventually began on August 4, 1945. At the time,
Indiana had only one other
amusement park,
Indiana Beach (then called Ideal Beach).
Opening to 1954 Santa Claus Land opened on August 3, 1946. At no cost, the park offered a Santa Claus actor, a toy shop, toy displays, a restaurant and themed children's rides, one of which was the Freedom Train (which originally opened as the Santa Claus Land Railroad). With the park's success, Louis Koch's son, Bill Koch, took over as head of Santa Claus Land. In the following years, Bill Koch continued to add to the park, including the first Jeep-Go-Round ever manufactured, a new restaurant, and a deer farm which was eventually home to fourteen
European white fallow deer. visiting Santa Claus Land in 1955
1955 to 1975 Santa Claus Land charged admission for the first time in 1955; adults were charged 50 cents while children continued to be admitted for free. Despite the new cost of admission, attendance continued to grow with the park. The Pleasureland ride section, which exists today as Rudolph's Reindeer Ranch, debuted in 1955. In the early 1970s, additional children's rides, including Dasher's Seahorses, Comet's Rockets, Blitzen's Airplanes, and Prancer's Merry-Go-Round, were added to this section. From 1959 to 1961, the first live entertainment, the Willie Bartley
Water Ski Thrill Show, performed on Lake Rudolph each summer. A choir composed of local children also performed at the park in 1970 and 1971.
Holiday World & Splashin' Safari 1993 to 2005 In 1993, the water park Splashin' Safari opened. In its first year of operation, Splashin' Safari operated with the Congo River
lazy river, the Crocodile Isle children's play area, and the AmaZOOM and Bamboo Chute
water slides. A
wave pool called The Wave was added the following year. The park added the first of its three
wooden roller coasters in 1995 with
Raven, built by
Custom Coasters International. The Raven was named "Ride of the Year" and voted the world's second best wooden roller coaster in its opening year. In 2000, The Raven was ranked as the best wooden roller coaster in the world by
Amusement Today magazine, a distinction it held for 4 years. Over the next four years, the park made only two additions. The first was the addition of the Monsoon Lagoon children's play complex in Splashin' Safari. The second was the replacement of the Firecracker roller coaster with Holidog's FunTown, a children's play area featuring Holidog's Treehouse, The Howler, Doggone Trail and Magic Waters, themed to one of the park's mascots, Holidog. Custom Coasters International was hired to install another wooden roller coaster.
The Legend, based on
Washington Irving's "
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", opened in 2000 adjacent to Raven. The Legend's ranking reached its peak in 2002, when it was voted the fourth best wooden roller coaster in the world. In 2003, Splashin' Safari added Zinga, a ProSlide Technology
Tornado slide, while Holiday World replaced Banshee with the HallowSwings
Wave swinger ride, and the Hall of Famous Americans
wax museum with the Liberty Launch
Double Shot ride. In 2004, the park continued to expand the water park, adding the Jungle Racer racing slide and the Jungle Jets children's play area. Bahari Wave Pool was added in 2005, which marked the beginning of an expansion project that would double the size of Splashin' Safari.
2006 to 2013 opened in 2006 and holds the record for the most airtime on a wooden roller coaster The 2006 season marked the 60th anniversary of Holiday World. The park celebrated it by adding a new section themed to
Thanksgiving. In order to create the section, the park added two new rides. The first was
Gobbler Getaway, a
Sally Corporation interactive
dark ride. The second and anchor attraction was the park's third wooden roller coaster,
The Voyage, built by
The Gravity Group. The addition of The Voyage garnered national attention, as the roller coaster claimed the record for most
airtime of any wooden roller coaster at 24.3 seconds. It is also the second longest wooden roller coaster in the world, behind only
The Beast at
Kings Island. In its first year of operation, The Voyage was awarded the title of Best New Ride and second best wooden roller coaster in the world by
Amusement Today. From 2007 to 2011, The Voyage was awarded the title of best wooden roller coaster in the world. Over the next three years, Holiday World & Splashin' Safari opened several new additions. The Bakuli slide and Kima Bay play area were added to Splashin' Safari, the Turkey Whirl
Tilt-A-Whirl ride and the Plymouth Rock Café were added to the Thanksgiving section, the Star Spangled Carousel replaced Thunder Bumpers on Chesapeake Bay in the Fourth of July section, and the Reindeer Games
drop tower replaced Kids Castle in the Christmas section. In 2009, Holiday World continued to break records by opening the world's tallest water ride, Pilgrims Plunge, in the Thanksgiving section of the park. Pilgrims Plunge deviated from the standard of using a sloped lift hill, instead opting for an open-air elevator system that took riders to a height of before dropping them at a 45-degree angle. Splashin' Safari broke another record in 2010, when the
Wildebeest water coaster was introduced. When Wildebeest opened, it was the world's longest
water coaster at long. It was also among the first water coasters to use
linear induction motors, rather than water jets or
conveyor belts, to propel riders up hills. Wildebeest was named Best New Waterpark Ride in 2010, as well as Best Waterpark Ride in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The park broke its own record just two years later, in 2012, when
Mammoth opened. Mammoth, which was the most expensive ride added to the park until the addition of Thunderbird, is long, making it the longest water coaster in the world. The park suffered a sudden loss in June 2010 when president and
CEO Will Koch died while swimming at his home. Although the
Spencer County coroner listed the official cause of death as drowning, family and park officials believe Koch's
type 1 diabetes played a factor in his death. Soon after his death, Holiday World & Splashin' Safari named Will's younger brother Dan as the park's new president. Dan Koch served as the park's president until late 2012, shortly after which the
board of directors announced Matt Eckert as the new president, sparking a fight within the family for control of the park and its assets. Matt Eckert was previously one of the park's two general managers and was not related to the Koch family. Will Koch's widow Lori and their three children won primary ownership of the park and its parent company, Koch Development Corporation, after a court battle. Dan Koch, along with his sister Natalie, would go on in 2014 to form Koch Family Parks and buy
Alabama Adventure & Splash Adventure, a previously troubled theme park in
Bessemer, Alabama. In recent years, the park has replaced some of its older rides with newer rides. In Holiday World, Blitzen's Airplanes was replaced with Rudolph's Round-Up in 2011, and in 2012 Paul Revere's Midnight Ride was replaced with Sparkler, a tall
Zamperla Vertical Swing ride. Due to limited vertical clearance for Sparkler, the park decided to relocate Star Spangled Carousel to the former location of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride and to place Sparkler in the carousel's place. The following year, Holiday World removed part of Holidog's Treehouse to make room for a new
tea cup ride called Kitty's Tea Party. In 2013, the park also removed the only original remaining ride, the Freedom Train, citing maintenance concerns. It was replaced by another train ride which the park named Holidog Express. In Splashin' Safari, Jungle Jets was replaced with Safari Sam's SplashLand in 2011. In 2013, AmaZOOM, Bamboo Chute, Congo River, and Crocodile Isle were removed to make way for a new Splashin' Safari entry plaza. The Hyena Falls slide complex and the Hyena Springs play area were added to the north of Giraffica. This ride is the first of a series of rides intended to bring the focus back on the theme park after several years of major additions to the water park. In addition to Mayflower, the park introduced a new restaurant and shop in Splashin' Safari, more cabanas, additional benches and shade structures, parking lot improvements, and the addition of
fireworks on Friday nights between June 13 and August 1. Giraffica closed at the end of the 2013 season and was removed before the start of the 2014 season, citing technical problems. after its first inversion On July 24, 2014, the park announced the construction of
Thunderbird, a launched
Bolliger & Mabillard Wing Coaster (the first of its kind in the United States, and the only one until 2025), for the 2015 season, occupying the area north of Hyena Falls and intertwining with The Voyage. The coaster reaches launches at 62 mph (100 km) in 3.5 seconds, and features the tallest vertical loop on a Wing Coaster. It was also the park's first major steel roller coaster.
2020 expansion On August 6, 2019, Holiday World formally announced the 2020 addition of Cheetah Chase, a dueling launched ProSlide Technology water coaster, for Splashin' Safari. Cheetah Chase features a track with a length of over 1,700 feet and a maximum speed of over 20 miles per hour. It is the world's first launched water coaster and Splashin' Safari's third major water coaster. The expansion also brought new rentable shaded lounge chairs near the area.
2024 expansion On August 1, 2023, the park announced plans for a new area within the Thanksgiving section called Stuffing Springs, on land where Girrafica was formerly located. The area is headlined by
Good Gravy!, a
Vekoma Family Boomerang coaster. It was the first Family Boomerang to be built in North America. The ride stands at 77 feet tall and reaches a maximum speed of 37 mph. The area also includes a playground, a
Dippin' Dots stand, and additional restrooms. ==Themed areas==