Christmas Holiday Trains

The holidays are a time for trains, be it the winter weather, shorter days with more time spent indoors or the festive mood with presents under a Christmas tree and fond childhood memories of Christmases past intertwined with the newly created impressions of the present holiday for adults and a new generation of youngsters; model trains will play a significant role in the holidays of many households.

Why are model trains often associated with the holidays? I think much of it has to do with how the trains were initially marketed. In the beginning, buying a model train set was not done on a momentary whim for most people, it required some saving and most likely was done in the context of a gift. The most prominent time for giving such a gift would be the holidays.

Many first time model train gifts were assembled by parents on late Christmas Eve while children were asleep, and it was just as if Santa and his elves had put them together themselves, the magical effect was the same. Young ones would awake on Christmas morning full of eagerness and anticipation, and upon entering the living room, find a new running train set near the Christmas tree; the excitement and joy of these moments left an indelible impression in the minds of a generation of children who grew into adults with fond memories of model trains, many of whom continued and expanded their train hobby as adults. Some of these grown ups have passed their love of trains onto their own children, perhaps introducing the youngsters to the hobby with a holiday gift of their very own starter train set.

With these pleasant memories and associations, the holidays will continue to be a particularly popular time to enjoy model railroading, with some reminiscing on simpler times of their youth, assembling a once a year traditional train layout as part of the holiday ritual, or even introducing a new generation via gifts to the hobby of model railroading.