Miami’s Christmas Tradition Santa’s Enchanted Forest Takes a Break for 2024 🎅💔

October 23, 2024

Miami besties, brace yourselves—our beloved holiday staple, Santa’s Enchanted Forest, just announced it won’t be making a comeback for the 2024 Christmas season. After four decades of decking out our city with twinkling lights, carnival rides, and cheesy Santa selfies, the park is hitting pause.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Santa's Enchanted Forest (@santasenchantedforest)

In an IG post today (October 22), Santa’s Enchanted Forest dropped the news: “We’ll be closed for the 2024 season as we reflect on four magical decades of cherished memories and plans for the future.” No lights, no rides, no funnel cakes this year 😔, but they also hinted at something new brewing behind the scenes. Could a comeback be in the works for 2025? 👀

If you’ve lived in Miami long enough, you probably remember its OG spot at Tropical Park, where it ran from the ‘90s until 2020. After hopping to Hialeah Park in 2021, the forest found a new home near the Medley–Doral border in 2022. But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing—code violations and permits drama had the park in limbo that year, with a cease-and-desist order trying to shut it down. But as we all know, the Christmas magic pulled through, and Santa’s Enchanted Forest opened up anyway in both 2022 and 2023. 🎡✨

Now for the tea: even though Santa’s Enchanted Forest is on hold, another holiday park, Christmas Wonderland, is set to take over the festivities this year. It’s coming through as the “next-gen” holiday vibe, and they’re opening on November 14th. Will it live up to our Enchanted Forest memories? Only time will tell!

Written by: Eleni