Indiana's Holiday World celebrates the most special days of the year: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. But today, August 3, is another special day for fans of the theme park to celebrate - it's Holiday World's birthday!
Holiday World opened as Santa Claus Land in Santa Claus, Indiana on August 3, 1946. That's right - nearly a decade before Disneyland jump-started the American theme park industry, Louis Koch opened a roadside amusement park so that kids whose families traveled to the attractively-named Southern Indiana town actually would be able to meet Santa Claus there.
The Koch family continues to own the park, which broadened its Christmas theme and became Holiday World in 1984. The park added its Splashin' Safari water park in 1993.
Today, the park is home to multiple well-regarded roller coasters and water coasters, including The Voyage, which Theme Park Insider readers have ranked among the top 20 roller coasters in the world.
Holiday World provides its visitors with the gifts of free parking, free soft drinks and free sunscreen every day, so for its birthday, the park is adding a special celebration to its Holidays in the Sky nighttime spectacular.
Happy birthday, Holiday World!
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