The Christmas Crater

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 16, 2005

Three weeks till opening. Rain this week didn’t help the process of getting ready. Look at how much we got: Who needs a rain gauge when you’ve got a Christmas…

Read More »

Where did our fountain go?

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 16, 2005

Long, long ago … before the town of Santa Claus was even named … a giant meteor crashed into one of the town’s hillsides, leaving behind a huge crater for…

Read More »

A taxing topic

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 15, 2005

About 18 months ago, I got a new computer here at work. One of the fussy little set-up chores is to go through and choose all the “Options” in Outlook….

Read More »

The Queen of Clean strikes again

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 15, 2005

Rachel came back from the main office this afternoon with the following story about our resident Queen of Clean: As I was looking for more letterhead over at the main…

Read More »

… but somebody’s got to do it

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 14, 2005

The call came out on the two-way radio first thing this morning: All units, we need 24 bodies for The Raven! Training is a particularly rough time around here. We…

Read More »

Praise from Paris

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 13, 2005

… Illinois, that is. Here’s what an email from Mike had to say: I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading the articles you post on…

Read More »

A story from the 1940s

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 13, 2005

Mrs. Koch just called and told me this little story; she asked me to add it to our HoliBlog: On Sunday, there was a knock at her door. It was…

Read More »

P.A.S.S. me that extinguisher

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 12, 2005

Anyone driving by Holiday World at lunchtime today probably wondered what sort of tribal ritual we were performing. A tall man with a flaming torch lit a fire a pan…

Read More »

Up, up and away!

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 12, 2005

It’s noisier than usual this spring. There’s a giant contraption being assembled right across the street in our Legend parking lot. And it looks like a hot-air balloon: Actually, it’s…

Read More »

First flight

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 11, 2005

The second train at The Raven is feeling right at home. You guessed it — Raven Red! Originally (back in 1994), I was in favor of a black train, since…

Read More »

Raven sighting

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 11, 2005

Just pulled into my parking space and saw, off in the woods, The Raven flying by. It’s roller-coaster testing time. The train is empty, of course. But still, what a glorious…

Read More »

You can hear it in St. Louis

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 10, 2005

Last summer, we got a call from a travel writer with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Tom and I had been in touch for several years and it was great to…

Read More »

It always snows in April

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 8, 2005

It’s a shame we’re not open this month. Now that’s a dangerous statement to make 29 days before opening. Everyone is focused on getting rides ready to go, employees trained,…

Read More »

A friend from ’62

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 8, 2005

Wow. It’s not just my Mom reading this thing. An email came in late yesterday afternoon from a lady asking about discounts. When I emailed her back with the information,…

Read More »

By the numbers

By Paula @ Holiday World
Published April 7, 2005

Just to put to rest any cynical suspicions that the HoliBlog is intended to be a sweet, puffy, sugary, cotton-candy cog in my magical PR spin machine… I’m about to…

Read More »