By james art A favorite Miami holiday attraction is skipping Christmas this year.
Santa’s Enchanted Forest announced on Instagram that it will not be returning for the 2024 season.
The family vacation theme park has been delighting South Florida residents for 40 years. For those who grew up in Miami-Dade County in the 2000s, the TV ad with the catchy jingle was a daily occurrence, advertising its former home “in Tropical Park off Palmetto and Byrd Road.”
In its social media post, the theme park’s page said management would take this year to regroup.
“Santa’s Enchanted Forest will be closed for the 2024 season as we reflect on four magical decades of cherished memories and plans for the future,” reads the Instagram caption.
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The theme park has been struggling for several years.
In 2021, Miami-Dade County declined to renew the theme park’s lease at county-owned Tropical Park. Since then, Santa’s Enchanted Forest has been hopping around different locations.
The ride was briefly held at Hialeah Park, a much smaller venue than Tropical Park, and was plagued by long lines and limited visitor parking. Families had to be bussed to Santa from a nearby parking lot to the Miami-Dade Metro station.
The festive fun event then moved to an empty lot in the small municipality of Medli. The space was larger and had more parking, but had less prominence and visibility than its two predecessors.
Still, Santa’s Enchanted Forest remains for many a nostalgic symbol of the weird, different way Miami and South Florida celebrate Christmas in the subtropics.
The New York Times published an article that called the theme park: “a touchstone where adults who came as teenagers now bring their children and vendors run booths once run by their parents.”
Without the “games, food, shows, festivities” at Santa’s Enchanted Forest this year, would-be holiday revelers can still visit Tropical Park’s alternative attraction – Christmas Wonderland – from November 14.