Santa’s Train

Many years ago Hubby bought me this adorable Santa Train as my Christmas gift. Knowing I love to decorate for our little GRANDSONS! You saw the track in my previous post about my tree & now I thought I’d show you some close up photos of the train & the North Pole scene UNDER my tree. Of course first comes Santa! He has a little Elf on the front that goes up & down as he pumps the steam to the engine.

Santa waves as he goes around saying Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas. The bells clang & the whistle blows. In the first photo you see the tender car with the packages & tree. Next comes Candy Dancer. Again, the elves are busy with movement making the candy & the lights on this car just dance. These photos have the flash being used so you can see the details but, I’ve included one below so you can see this car & how it looks in the dark with just the glow of the lights from the tree, village & train.

Next is Mrs Claus & an elf baking gingerbread cookies. Mrs. Claus moves as she puts the cookies in the oven & the elf uses the bellow to stoke the red flame of the fire.

And next the elves skating pond. There is a little magnet that makes that elf swirl & twirl when the train is moving. Again, an elf pumping water to create the ice for the pond. ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And at the end… a RED caboose of course! Usually I put the Department 56 Snow Village houses under the tree with the Santa train but, this year I decided to put the Department 56 North Pole there instead (It is usually on the counter between the kitchen & living room as seen in a previous post). Even though the “scale” is smaller it is still really cute with the train.

Here is a little peek at the part to the right of the tree. At the back middle is the home of Santa & Mrs. Claus with gum drop trees & other twinkling trees. To the front of the Claus home is the Elves Bunkhouse & you can see Santa’s sleigh.

To the left is Sweet Rock Candy Shop & to the right is the Ornament Shop. Elves Pointy Shoe Shop!

The Reindeer Barn with the names of those magical creatures above each door & The Peanut Brittle Factory! Of course there is Reindeer Flight School. For Elf recreation there is a skating pond where they whirl & twirl for hours. All in all… A MAGICAL PLACE with a lot of action going on.

This year I really wanted to do a Silver, Gold & Crystal tree but, the GRANDS are growing up sooooooooooooooo fast & they will only be little & interested in this MAGIC for such a short time that I decided to do all of this for them. And I am happy that I made this choice. One look at their little faces as they enter the house & I know it’s all worth it. Hope you are enjoying the preparations for Christmas at your house. Hubby gave me his terrible cold & now it has really slowed me down for this last week. Good thing I have most of it done. Now… off to sniffle, sneeze & blow my nose. Ho Ho Ho!

HUGS! Charlene