In days long past, as the holidays drew near, people in Miami didn’t dream of sugar plums or sleigh rides or roasting chestnuts, because who in Miami even knows what a chestnut is?
Instead, they dreamed of nights and lights at Santa’s Enchanted Forest. With its stomach-flipping rides, funnel cakes, classic Pit Bull tunes, surfing Santa display and giant light-up tree, the Christmas theme park was a true Miami tradition.
But now, in 2025, after the first cold front of the season has hit and Thanksgiving is on the horizon, there is no trace of Santa’s. Because — and this news may hit you like a lump of coal in your stocking — Santa’s is closed forever.
Last October, the park announced on its Instagram that it would “be closed for the 2024 season as we reflect on four magical decades of cherished memories and plans for the future.” There was no promise to return, exactly, but the possibility of a Christmas miracle remained, a dream it could rise from the ashes of fried cheesecake and holiday nostalgia.
Christmas tree at Santa’s Enchanted Forest
But no. Buddy Cormican, who worked at Santa’s Enchanted Forest for 31 years as the attraction’s manager, confirmed that the park, which dissolved its operating company last year, is over for good.
He’s still devastated by its fate. “This is my life,” he said of his job there.
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Cormican said he wasn’t sure what would happen to the iconic installations, like the famous entrance with the illuminated Santa, the rainbow arch walkway, the many nativity scenes. Some, he said, were being taken to a property in northern Florida to be preserved until they find a permanent home. (Somebody call HistoryMiami.)
Cormican says he will especially miss the impact that Santa’s Enchanted Forest had on generations of children, saying he loved that “all of the children of South Florida were able to see a beautiful moment in time” when they came to the park.
The Ferris wheel at Santa’s Enchanted Forest.
Owned and operated by the Shechtman family for 40 years, Santa’s struggled to find its footing after losing its home base at Tropical Park, where it operated from 1984 through 2020, when the county ended its lease. It moved to Hialeah Park in 2021, but the site was plagued by a lack of parking.
It then moved to a vacant lot on the border of Medley and Doral, sandwiched between a quarry and the Medley landfill and just down the street from the Covanta waste-to-energy plant in 2022, where it was open for two seasons.
While Santa’s scrambled for a new permanent home, a new Christmas-themed attraction called Christmas Wonderland moved into Tropical Park. Produced by local company Loud and Live, Christmas Wonderland begins its third year in Tropical Park this week, offering an experience that CEO Tony Albelo said they hoped would rank among other “world class holiday villages” in New York and London.
Surfing Santa at Santa’s Enchanted Forest at Hialeah Park was one of the enduring photo ops.
Santa’s displacement by Christmas Wonderland eventually ended up in the courts. In 2023, Santa‘s filed a civil lawsuit against Miami-Dade County and Loud and Live alleging the bidding process was rigged and a result of backroom dealing and asking a Circuit Court judge to cancel the county permit that allowed the new attraction to operate. It also demanded Loud and Live stop marketing Christmas Wonderland as a virtual clone of Santa‘s. The case was eventually dismissed.
So as Miami rolls into the holiday season this year, Christmas Wonderland continues to tap into that sense of local pride, offering a fresh made-for-Miami experience with 305-inspired installations and holiday photo ops and even drinks that locals can get into, like last year’s coquito-based cocktail. There’s even a new holiday attraction popping up in Hialeah’s Amelia Earhart Park, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Christmas Park, which opens Nov. 13 and promises a blend of Ripley’s oddities and holiday fun.
But to Cormican, the loss of Santa’s Enchanted Forest is acute because going there was an experience that united generation after generation.
“It was all about South Florida. That’s all I can say,” he said.
Christmas Wonderland at Tropical Park opens its third season in Miami this week with fireworks, immersive light displays and the country’s largest traveling Ferris wheel.