Santa’s Enchanted Forest, Miami: Celebrating 40 Years of Christmas Magic and Carnival Spirit

Perched on the Atlantic coast, there’s a fantastic place that combines the thrill of an amusement park with the wonder of Christmas: Santa’s Enchanted Forest.

While it’s hard to believe Santa would venture so far from the North Pole, the enchanted forest’s Miami location makes it an excellent holiday hub for Florida locals and vacationing snowbirds alike. Escaping the cold doesn’t mean you have to skip out on the Christmas spirit!

With rides for all ages, dazzling shows, and a magical sleigh’s worth of toys and games, Santa’s Enchanted Forest is the ultimate Christmas jubilee! Over 100 attractions fill the forest, creating a bustling, carnival-esque environment that’s fun for the whole family. However, unlike your typical fair, this one has personal meet-and-greets with Santa himself!

Santa’s Enchanted Forest – Merry Admissions

Celebrating its 40th year, Santa’s Enchanted Forest is the world’s largest holiday theme park, and it’s bringing all the glitz and glam to the 2023 Christmas season! From November 9th to January 7th, this pop-up theme park will be open for business.

Open every day during that span – including holidays! – the fun begins at 5:00 p.m. and goes until midnight (though, on peak nights and busy weekends, the park has been known to stay open even later). As of writing, single night tickets are $34.58 for the kiddos and $42.99 for adults. If you plan to visit Santa’s Enchanted Forest multiple times, there’s also a season pass option. There’s even an express pass add-on that may be used during peak nights and weekends ($28.04 per person) so you can skip the lines and maximize your time in the park.

Guest parking is available at the enchanted forest, and it’s FREE! However, parking spots are provided on a first-come, first-served basis, so we recommend arriving early to ensure a space for your reindeer and sleigh (or your horse-powered car). For maximum convenience, you can also take a Lyft or Uber – Santa’s Enchanted Forest has a designated drop-off spot!

An Array of Attractions

Santa’s Enchanted Forest Miami may have started out small with just a few Christmas lights and a merry-go-round, but today, this park has absolutely exploded into a glittering wonderland of holiday cheer! While we won’t be covering its 100+ attractions individually, we will go over the highlights, giving you an idea of what to expect while leaving plenty of things for you to explore on your own!

Rides

Santa’s Enchanted Forest is dedicated to providing Christmas-themed fun for everyone! That’s why they have everything from kiddie rides to thrill rides and several family-friendly rides in between!

Kiddos (and kids at heart) who are at least 36 inches tall will enjoy a classic merry-go-round, bumper cars, the Lollipop Swing, and the Wacky Worm roller coaster. Rides in the kiddie category are exciting but not too scary – just fast enough to get some giggles going!

Family rides (42″ to 53″ tall) include coasters like Avalanche and Crazy Mouse, as well as amusement park classics like the Scrambler. While these coasters also fall into the thrill ride category, there are also a few select rides that require you to be 54 inches tall, like Ring of Fire. From insanely tall drop rides to a relaxing sky-high Ferris wheel, there’s something to suit everyone’s taste in adrenaline!

Shows

Shows at Santa’s Enchanted Forest are definitely on the exciting side! You’ll be dazzled by astonishing illusions, free-flying acrobats, and zooming motorbikes all in one night! As of writing, we don’t have the master list of 2023 shows and showtimes yet, but there are generally multiple performances of each show every night.

The shows are often circus-like in nature, bringing a wonderful sense of nostalgia to the stage. Last year, there were performances by Cirque Equinox, as well as a show called “See the Circus, Be the Circus.” In addition to gravity-defying physical stunts, Santa’s Enchanted Forest has also been known to host a motorcycle stunt show, a mind-bending magic show, and an interactive performance with LED robots! (We expect many of these shows to return or have similar replacements.)

Attractions

There’s an amazing selection of interactive fun at Santa’s Enchanted Forest, including face painting, paintball, carnival games like ring toss and dart balloons, a 7-D virtual reality experience, Christmas karaoke, and, of course, meeting Santa! (Santa is at the park every night to greet guests, take photos, and hear their Christmas wishes.)

All of this takes place against a backdrop of millions of colorful Christmas lights, including South Florida’s tallest Christmas tree, a 100-foot-tall behemoth decked out in bedazzling twinkle lights.

Santa’s Enchanted Forest also has a delicious selection of over 50 food stands! Cravings both savory and sweet will be satisfied here; turkey legs, chili-cheese fries, potato crisps, candy apples, funnel cake, deep-fried Oreos, and all of the best carnival treats are part of these holiday festivities!

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Santa’s Enchanted Forest is a fantastic family holiday extravaganza. Perfect for both younger kiddos and adults alike, there’s something for everyone to enjoy amongst the rides, shows, and attractions! Not to mention, those carnival treats are irresistible.

If you decide to visit Santa’s Enchanted Forest, keep in mind that weekends and holidays are likely to be quite a bit busier than average weekdays! We also recommend comfortable shoes for lots of walking, as well as light jackets for those cooler, after-dark temps.

If you’re celebrating Christmas in Miami, then Santa’s Enchanted Forest is your go-to spot for ultimate holiday fun!

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Featured photo via Canva.com