It’s not every day that an anime earth bender, voiced by a former professional wrestler, writes longingly of his childhood experience of visiting a family-owned amusement park, built to celebrate the theme of Christmastime, that is located in the Great Woods region of northern New Hampshire. But that is exactly the case of the unlikely connection between Mick Foley, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Santa’s Village.
Foley, aka “Dude Love,” “Cactus Jack,” and “Mankind,” provided the voice of the popular earth bender The Boulder (who was unbeatable in the earth bending ring against any foe, except, of course, against Toph, aka “The Blind Bandit”) in the second season of the popular “children’s” television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (see video below).
But Foley is also an author, with several memoir-esque titles in print. And in two of them, he mentions his happy childhood memories visiting Santa’ Village, in Jefferson, New Hampshire.
In The Hardcore Diaries Foley writes of his Christmas obsession, noting, “every good thing in my life somehow leads me back to Jefferson, New Hampshire, and the trip to Santa’s Village my parents took me on when I was only three years old.” And in Foley Is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling, he ranks Santa’s Village #1 on his list of the 10 best amusement parks in the country (even ahead of that Disney World place), suggesting that “[w]hat it lacks in rides, it makes up for in personal nostalgia, a beautiful location, and the magic of Christmas in the summer.”
High praise indeed. Especially from an earth bender.
