Headed to Santa’s Village in Lake Arrowhead this holiday season? Then you will want to plan in some extra time to stop at Lake Arrowhead Village.
The quaint village is full of shops and outlets where you can do a lot of your holiday shopping, as well as restaurants to grab a meal. I stopped by last week on my way up the mountain and found some incredible deals including packable puffer jackets at Wilson’s Leather Goods for only $29.
Lake Arrowhead Village is very kid and pet friendly – expect to see a parade of pooches and signs on many of the shop doors welcoming dogs (but keep your kid on a leash!). There’s an ice cream parlour and even a dog bakery at the far end of the plaza, near the carousel.
You’re not hallucinating if you hear a whistle and the chug a lug of a steam engine. A large storefront area is dedicated to an enormous model train display that is sure to delight kids and adult aficionados as well. The runs are incredibly detailed.
If you tire of shopping, behind the shops you can board a boat for a cruise around the lake, feed the many ducks and birds or just stroll along the waterfront.
There’s plenty of items to shop for here, at any budget level but the stand out shops for me were the following:
Mr G’s for Toys toy store:
This is an incredible, old fashioned toy store with lots of handmade, boutique, and unique games and toys.
We all know there are not many independent toy stores left out there, and few places that sell anything besides the same old big brand plastic junk. This place is a gem.
I could not believe the assortment of board games and puzzles and I could have spent all day browsing and picking out gifts. They even had the hard-to-find Calico Critters and the biggest assortment of ty stuffies I’ve see in a long time.
Big On Bears:
There were a lot of cute mountain themed gifts and novelties here but the union suit pajamas stole the show. I love that there are matching PJs here for the whole family – infants to adults and there are even options for the dog. I’m a sucker for onesie with a silly butt-flap so I had a giggle here and wanted to buy all the pjs.
This shop also has hand knit, fleece lined yak wool gloves and hats from Nepal at super reasonable prices (under $20).
Jurassic Fossils:
From the minute I walked in and saw the dinosaur poop, I knew this was a store my kids and I could spend a long time in. There are collectible rocks and fossils, arrowheads, carvings, gems and crystals, and some incredibly rare and magnificent specimens of our earth’s history mixed in with the tourist tidbits.
You can buy a geode and smash it too if you like.
I’d go back to Lake Arrowhead Village just to poke around in this shop a little more!
Disclosure: I visited Lake Arrowhead Village as part of a press familiarization trip with Visit San Bernadino. All opinions are my own.
More Things to See and Do in San Bernadino County:
- Experiencing Fall at Oak Glen Village
- A Taste of Colonial Life at Riley’s Stone Soup Farm
- Spending The Night at an Oasis in Joshua Tree
- Where to Express Your Artistic Self in Joshua Tree
- Taking a Walk in the National Park at Joshua Tree NSP
- Where to Eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in Joshua Tree
- Where to Watch the Sun Set & Moonrise in Joshua Tree
- Horseback Riding Along the Pacific Crest Trail
- The Alpine Zoo of San Bernadino
- Shopping at Lake Arrowhead Village
- A Visit to Santa’s Village at Skypark
The town looks awesome and now I want to visit it to go see the jurassic fossils!