- Santa's Village
- Location: Jefferson, NH (in the White Mountains region)
- Phone: (603) 586-4445
A curious study in contrasts, the hardcore combatant has a soft spot for Christmas. Foley decorates his home for the holidays and listens to carols--year-round. And he makes pilgrimages as often as possible to Santa's Village.
Like many baby boomers who have rediscovered the charming Christmas-themed park nestled in New Hampshire's majestic White Mountains, Foley first visited the attraction as a youngster. Now, his kids adore Santa's Village while the park's rich patina of nostalgia sends him on a journey back to childhood innocence.
Off-season visit
Foley remembers, with vivid detail, visiting the park in the early 1960s. He was five when his family last took him, but the memories, along with the photographs on his parents' walls, endured. After performing at a wrestling event in Maine, Foley returned to Santa's Village with his wife and two young children and was struck by how well preserved and captivating it was.Geared to the pre-teen set, the park features themed attractions including monorail cars that look like flying sleighs and a carousel with reindeer instead of horses. Foley says his favorite is the Yule Log Flume ride. The grounds are spotless, the staff is personable, everything is reasonably priced, and its nostalgic aura is nearly palpable.
When Foley's wrestling schedule took him to New England a few months later, he decided to go back for a solo visit to Santa's Village. Since it was the middle of winter however, the park was closed for the season. On a whim, he wrote to second-generation owners, Elaine and Mike Gainer, and asked if they would allow him to walk around the shuttered park. "My wife thought I was nuts," Foley laughs, "but the Gainers were wonderful, and I've since developed a friendship with them."
He's naughty and nice
"We have many loyal fans," says Elaine Gainer, "but nobody besides Mick has ever come here to wander around in the off season." Declaring wrestling "a hoot," she says she does not follow the sport and had never heard of Foley before he made his unusual request. Her Smackdown-savvy son brought her up to speed. "Based on his wrestling characters, we didn't know who the man behind the mask would be," Gainer says. "But, it turns out he's a gentle, kind, down-to-earth family man."Well, as down to earth as a guy who takes sickening chair shots to the head, backflips onto a mat filled with thumbtacks, and has his face bloodied beyond recognition can be.
So why would a man who idolized Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, aspired to incite the roar of the crowd, drove himself with incredible devotion, and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in the camp, mayhem-filled wrestling world seek the quaint charms of Santa's Village? "I find that it grounds me. It's a chance to escape and become a kid again," Foley says, acknowledging the odd conflicting passions that drive him. "I don't want to live in the big, scary world of pro wrestling all the time."
Next page:Christmas and Wrestling Myths
