Santa Train

We had a special expedition to the Santa Train this evening at the science museum. (I told Mattie we were going to ride a train tonight, and he said, "Just like Grandpa!"  Yep, although Grandpa's train ride was a whole lot longer!)

The Santa Train will probably look familiar, because it's the regular train decorated with Christmas lights.  :)

Santa Train is an after-hours event, so they have the path to the train decorated with Christmas lights, but the museum itself is closed.  Mattie was a little disappointed that he didn't get to see the dinosaurs, but he and James were both delighted to play with the water fountain.  

We arrived early to make sure we didn't miss our train.  We (the adults) enjoyed some hot chocolate. They had some crafts set up for kids to do, but they seemed to be geared toward slightly older kids, although Mattie was happy to get a sticker.  The "treasure chest" which included the stickers was sponsored by the credit union.  So Mattie first picked out a perfectly nice snowman sticker, but then said, "I want some money" (heh, preview of the teenage years?), and so ended up with a sticker with pictures of dollar bills on it!

Mattie also spotted the light-up toys at the deviously-placed souvenir booth, and asked for a flashlight.  (They were inexpensive and I'm a sucker, so he and James are both now the proud owners of reindeer flashlights.  They were very happy with them!)


The train ride goes to "Santa's Landing pad" where they have a sleigh set up and Santa and his elf come around and greet all the children on the train.  Santa asked Matthew what he wanted for Christmas, and Mattie was a bit like a reindeer in the headlights.  He said, "Uhh...." and then let out a big sigh.  It was hilarious.  James was sitting with me on the farther side of the train car, so Santa didn't have as much conversation with him. (Probably just as well since I'm not sure how well James was hearing while we were there.) James shook Santa's hand but didn't say anything to him. Santa's elf came around next distributing little coloring books. James was very pleased with that, and liked looking at the picture of the train.  (I turned the page, and he said, "Where's the train?")

The tunnel is always the boys' favorite part of the train ride, and this time they had it lit up with Christmas lights inside, which was fun. It was neat to see some of the other stuff along the tracks at night, too. 

So, all in all, a nice evening!  It wasn't quite what I had imagined (I thought they'd have the whole train route decked out in Christmas lights), but we enjoyed it.