Santa's Village Azoosment Park #Giveaway (Ends 8/11)

This week my family and I had the opportunity to check out Santa's Village Azoosment park in East Dundee, Illinois. I had never heard of it until I was asked if my family would like to check it out as a feature on my site, and after posting on facebook, tweeting and talking to friends and family I was thrilled to experience it for myself. Santa's Village was open many years ago, like when my parents (now in their mid 50's) were younger. It closed down and has been open again for a couple of years, updated but still with that old charm that many would remember.

Upon arriving you could tell it still had that old classic charm, but with updated features for today. My kids immediately loved that they were going to Santa's Village and who knew, Santa's Village had rides, a petting zoo, animals to see, shows and more. They were thrilled and what my husband and I liked the best was that it was geared perfectly for our two, five and seven year old. The rides were a lot like carnival rides, your Tilt a Whirl,  boats, cars, mini ferris wheel, roller coaster and much more. There were several but it wasn't over whelming for the kids and they were able to ride their favorites many times. Among the rides my kids absolutely loved the old time cars they could drive and press the petal themselves.. it moved along a track but you had to keep it going. Lets just say my husband and I were taken on many drives during our day! They also loved the real old fire truck that pulled two carts that many could sit in that had water hoses connected. You got to ride to the "fire" and actually help put out the burning house. Talk about a dream, especially if you love firefighters. I saw several kids going on it over and over again. These two the parents were able to ride along with also, kind of a breather for me. The employees for the rides were fantastic, so nice to the children and always had a smile on their face. It was nice compared to the many festivals and amusement parks with rides like these we've been to in the past. All the rides were kept clean and up kept, gated with adorable wooden fences.

There were a couple different animal houses you could check out - the Parakeets that you could feed, and the scales and feathers house. My children's favorite though was the petting zoo where they got to feed and pet so many different animals and even had a pony ride on "real" ponies my youngest kept saying. The animals seemed healthy and well cared for also... a lot like a zoo. We also go to see Santa's reindeer and have a sleigh ride pulled by horses.

We made two of the four shows they have at Santa's Village - the exotic animals and magic show. My son got to participate in holding an Anaconda snake, he was quite thrilling and the kids like to pet the hedgehog that was making it's rounds through the park. The magic show was an absolute delight to my daughter, who kept hollering.. "this is real magic". He was darn good and really had the kids oohhing and ahhing over his fun magic tricks. I will admit I enjoyed that a lot also, they were pretty darn neat. Unfortunately we missed the Kids Bucks game show & the other animal show, but from the hollering I heard, they must have been great!

 Overall I got the feeling of a gloried carnival with added extras, but with extremely friendly and nice employees. The food was good and I loved that you could bring picnic lunches in for your family and there were tons of designated seating with picnic tables and benches in the shade, among and away from the action. I also noticed there was a mothers room, which being a mother who has a breastfeeding baby a lot, it's so nice to be able to retreat if need be. It was really nice easy walking, being pregnant smooth pavement to walk on was wonderful and I definitely took advantage of those nice benches. The kids got to meet Santa at the end of their day & pick souvenirs from the gift shop. Santa's Village Azoosment Park is perfect if you have younger children, easy to get too and great for a day or if you live close season tickets and only going a couple of hours here or there. I would recommend it to younger families looking for fun any day!

WIN! One Momma in Flip Flops2 reader will win 5 tickets to Santa's Village Azoosment Park. Enter through Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway I received complimentary product to facilitate this review, all opinions are my own.