Christmas in the Park - 1994

Video highlights of Cedar Point's first and only "Christmas in the Park" event, held in December 1994. Included are portions of the horse-drawn carriage ride around the park.

It was a good idea in theory, but I can see why they never did it again. The park looked dead. They could've done light displays through the park to give you something to look at while on the carriage. Good idea, but poorly executed. Looks like it was thrown together at the last minute.

What an incredible video! It's unreal how much has changed at the park in the last twenty years (and how much is still there). Thank you for posting this.

It was wild to see Jungle Larry's, the Frontier Carousel, and Chicken BBQ again. Jungle Larry's would have just closed that preceding season, right?

Wow what a time warp!

How many years was the Wildcat painted black and white, I dont remember that...

It wasn't really black, more of a dark green and white.

It was an idea that might have had some potential. It was, I'm afraid, doomed from the get go. First, Winter on the Point as a lot of us know can be down right brutal, and unpredictable. Second, I got the impression that someone had to do a really hard sell to get it approved in the first place, and was given an extremely small budget to do it with. They should have cordoned off a small section of the park to have it in and gone to town on the decorating and activities. Riding in a carriage past lots of partially dismantled rides may appeal to the fanboys but is boring as H#@! to the average patron.

From what I saw in the video, it didn't look very appealing. I doubt it was advertised too much. I think it only drew from the Sandusky and Huron area. I don't think I would've made the 2 hour drive to do what they were offering. My idea of a better holiday themed event would be they could set up light displays down the midways and you can drive your vehicle through the park, but pay a small fee to do it. And they could do some things at Hotel Breakers with Santa in the lobby for the Kids. That wouldn't require much staffing to do, which is another issue besides weather with doing a holiday event.

Very neat video. I think the Winter Chill Out is a much better winter event though.

The Chill Out is aimed at a very specific audience, while the Christmas in the Park was supposed to draw the general public. We're talking apples and oranges here.

We have discussed Winter in the Park several times before. Hard to see the park ever do this again. I just dont see enough people attending to make it worthwhile. Both Cleveland and Toledo have great Christmas events so why would people drive to Sandusky for Cedar Point's? The draw of the area indoor water parks does add to the draw that they didnt have back in '94 but not enough for the park to attempt this again. Are there really enough people from Sandusky and surroundings to attend to make this worthwhile?

Now I admit I would probably go and make a weekend out of it at the water park and take in a nice dinner at Bay Harbor. But we usually do that anyway in December.

The entire conversation about "why did this go away" or "I have a cool idea that could restart this thing" really starts and ends with the word temperature.

Try it.

Temperature.

Walt, is that you in the carriage? Or did you just happen to come across this video? A great find for the treasure chest.

I don't think temperature is much of an issue. Every year, thousands of people in Cleveland go to Winterfest, which is the Christmas lights lighting, among other things. Horse drawn carriage rides are very popular and people are outside for hours. Doesn't seem to matter how cold it is, I don't think it would matter much at CP either.

Except that it's an hour away from the nearest large metro, ODOT sucks at clearing roads, and frankly I think the park is even more uncomfortable in winter than anywhere inland. I don't see a lot of upside to doing anything at the park in winter. Not saying they never will, but it wouldn't be high on my list of things to do.

That is a great video, I really enjoyed playing "where am I in the park". It took me a while to figure what some of those rides were, especially the black (green) and white Wildcat and the Brown Sky Ride station.

I think it would be possible to pull this type of event off, but it might be more trouble than its worth, temperature is one of the main problems since the peninsula is much colder than the mainland. The other problems would range from staffing it to the finances of it, to pull it off and be profitable from it I can only imagine what the price of entry would be to it. Although I think that if they found a way to make an event like this worth it, opening it up to those who have purchased season passes for the upcoming season might work and boost season pass sale. But truly, the only people who want to be in the park when it is closed are the extreme fans (like us on this site) and we have the Winter Chillout so why make a completely different event.

I personally was astounded by the lack of bird poop on Raptor! Wow... Truly breath taking.

Also, I think I caught a glimpse of the Good Time Theater somewhere in there. That was a throwback! The park sure hasn't been the same since they removed it! ;-)

I think they should add horse driven carriage rides at the winter chill out. Much nicer than walking. If they ran in shifts it would only take 75 horses or so. I'm going to email Tony, I feel entitled to this.

Doesn't look like the video is working anymore...any chance of uploading it to YouTube or some such? Or reuploading here?