Road trip!

With the advent of Vine, the Tweetable six-second video loop, we see many happy – albeit brief – reports from the road:

Words of wisdom

A question to ponder during this Christmas in July week:

“Smiling with Santa” photo contest

Congratulations to our winner: Jennifer G. from Perryville, Missouri, pinned a photo of her daughter, Diandra, on Santa's knee. Thanks to everyone who submitted their wonderful photos!

——–

Year after year we're asked, "Are you doing something special for Christmas in July?"

Well, we like to think we do something special every day.

Nevertheless, let's have some fun this week with a Pinterest photo contest. (Facebook doesn't allow them, so please don't get cranky with us.)

Okay, so here we go:

As you probably know, Holiday World is located in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. In fact, the park's original name was Santa Claus Land.

… so we know there are thousands upon thousands of photos of children (and adults) with Santa from over the decades.

With the man:

Santa Claus

… or the statue:

Santa statue

Oh, how I wish I knew the story behind that photo!

So … do you have any wonderful photos with Santa?

Of course you do! … then enter our "Smiling with Santa" photo contest and you could win two one-day tickets!

Here's how:

1. Send us your favorite photo with Santa. It can be a photo taken here with the Man in Red, with any Santa statue (here or in town), or even with a Santa's helper from the mall. Or maybe use that PhotoShop software Santa put in your stocking last year to create something fabulous. But it must be your photo.

2. Email your photo to us at contest@holidayworld.com no later than 10am CDT on Monday, July 29, 2013. Attachments must be jpegs and no larger than 1MB. Be sure to include the names and hometowns of those in the photo, ages of any children, and the year the photo was taken. And yes, a photo of a photo is okay – don't tear apart all of Grandma's frames! (And, as always, keep it clean and friendly.)

3. As the photos come in, we will pin them on the "Photos with Santa" board on our Pinterest page. On noon CDT on the last day of July, we'll choose the winner. Actually, you will choose the winner! The photo that has been "pinned" the most wins – it's as simple as that!

4. The winner of our "Smiling with Santa" photo contest will receive two one-day tickets to Holiday World & Splashin' Safari for 2013.

5. You must be 13 or older to enter. Multiple entries are permitted. The winner will be notified by email.

6. Photos exceeding 1MB and/or not jpegs will be disqualified. You're on your honor not to send us any copyrighted photos taken outside of the park (if they were professionally shot, they probably have a © mark on them). And the photo must belong to you.

7. By entering, you are giving Holiday World permission to post your photo along with your first name and last initial, plus city, state, and other interesting information you include with your email on our blog, website, Pinterest, and other social media.

8. Employees of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari and their immediate family members are not eligible.

9. Winners of Holiday World contests over the past six months are not eligible.

10. Judges’ decisions are final. (We will take a screen grab at 12noon CDT on July 31, 2013, and the photo with the highest number of pins at that moment in time wins. Easy peasy.)

Please take the time to read the above instructions carefully before you enter. Something we don't say – but it's important – is that time is of the essence. The sooner you send us your photo (as a jpeg, no larger than 1MB), the sooner we'll pin it to our Pinterest page – and the sooner you can start pestering your friends and family to pin and re-pin your darling picture with Santa.

Good luck everyone – can't wait to see your photos!

 

A glimpse into the future

I can’t help but wonder how many parents over the years have trembled in fear of the future while sitting in the backseat of one of our Lewis & Clark cars.

Tweet of the day

This little nugget of wisdom cracked me up:

Is your summer falling away? (winners listed)

Update: Congratulations to our three winners!

  • Trista M. of Corydon, Indiana
  • Debbie H. of Lebanon, Illinois
  • Wendy B. of DuQuoin, Illinois

Each winner receives two one-day tickets to the park. Thanks to all who entered!

Maybe we can help!

Don't Let Summer Fall Away Sweepstakes

To enter, click on the Win Tickets! tab on our Facebook page, or use this link for mobile devices.

If you don't want to enter through Facebook, you can just plug in your email address. You can enter extra entries each day by tweeting, pinning or sharing.

We're open daily through August 14. Hope to see you before then!

Good luck!

A sweet competition

When word got out we were hosting a TwinkieMania contest today, there was no problem getting contestants.

Or emcees:

TwinkieMania emcees

You may recognize Trevor and Amanda from our musical shows. They didn't have to be asked twice to "host" our event.

"I'm a game show junkie!" proclaimed Trevor, who also got these shirts made up and brought in a game show theme song or two to play while we waited for the contest to begin.

All told, we had 28 contestants. From the smallest child:

Twinkie eating

… to the muscliest man:

Twinkie contest

… and even a few "celerity contestants," including Kara Kirtley from the Eyewitness News Team.

We were quite impressed Kara came dressed so nicely – and in a Twinkie-colored frock.

Kara Kirtley

After Amanda explained the rules (each contestant received three deep-fried Twinkies and each round was 60-seconds long), Kara sat down and gave it her all.

Kara Kirtley at the Twinkie contest

Kara didn't win her round, but most importantly she didn't drip raspberry sauce on her dress!

No one managed to consume all three Twinkies during their allotted 60-seconds. We had a few photo finishes, though, and the crowd roared their votes of approval to help our emcees-turned-judges figure out the true winners.

Photo finish

Here are the names and hometowns of our seven winners:

  • Matt H. from Mt. Carmel, Illinois
  • Nicole C. from Owensboro, Kentucky
  • Michael G. from Madison, Indiana
  • Aleyah C. from Owensboro, Kentucky
  • Lonnie W. from Oblong, Illinois
  • Blake A. from Bridgeport, Illinois
  • Michael L. from Calico Rock, Arkansas

Thanks to all the good-natured eaters and the great audience. (No one complained about having a crumby time.)

Twinkie eaters

We had loads of fun – and that's what it's all about!