NORTH POLE, N.Y. — On a snowy shoulder of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks, beyond hand-painted signs advertising “North Pole, N.Y.” and “Rides, Shops, Shows,” several parking attendants pushed a sedan, its tires spinning, into a packed lot. The car’s occupants spilled out, joining other families who high-stepped through snowdrifts — just about everyone smiling, some tossing snowballs — toward the entrance to Santa’s Workshop, a theme park from another era.

Inside, a line to Santa’s house snaked toward a frost-covered North Pole, where families posed for selfies and a boy in a puffy snowsuit touched his tongue. Some families roasted marshmallows around a fire pit or wandered into the reindeer stable, where the animals were bedded down and out of reach of little hands. A boy raced from stall to stall, stopping in front of an empty one and shouting, “Where’s Donder? Where’s Donder?” (Donder and Dasher, an attendant elf later explained, had been feeling ill so they were recovering in a nearby pasture.)

While it appeared to be a snowglobe-perfect scene, Doug Waterbury, the owner of Santa’s Workshop, said, “It’s a challenge to keep the door open, frankly.”

“We lose money or break even every year,” Mr. Waterbury added. “Attendance is down. It’s hard to get up in the morning to push snow, feed reindeer and then look at all that red ink at the end of the year — and it’s not red because of Christmas.’’