Start a new tradition in your family and head over to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk now through December 28th and get your tickets for the Train to Christmas Town, a memorable slow ride with storytelling, elves, book characters, cocoa and cookies, and SANTA!
The Iowa Pacific pulls into the stop and right away you see elves in festive stripes green white and red dancing about the train and at the top of the steps to greet passengers. The conductor takes your tickets and as you board the hour-long ride to and from Christmastown, elves help you to your seat and you take in the holiday decor about the train.
As we leave music plays, dancing continues and the singing elves share a contagious joy. Over the speakers, the story of The Train to Christmas Town begins as the elves carry around books and share the story with the children and their families. No sooner you see the characters from the story come to life, like walking past you and giving the kids high-fives!
The gentle bump of the tracks is relaxing as hot cocoa and gingerbread cookies are delivered to passengers. A sweet treat and break in the festivities.
Soon we’re arriving to “Christmas Town,” a mock city where you see lights out the window and signs in holiday decor. The ficticious area is just where the train stops and reverses back, you don’t literally disembark. As we make our way back, a surprise visitor enters and the squeals of delight begin!
Santa arrives and sits with children, picks them up for photo opportunities and the smiles can not be erased from faces for hours…behind Santa are the elves delivering the special present of the very book, “The Train to Christmas Town” for every child!
Santa departs and we are joined again by the story book characters, more singing and dancing and a very festive ride overall. Why not make a new tradition for your family like us? Each child receives a book with the ride, plus each ticket gives you one play of miniature golf or laser tag, or 12 arcade tokens at Neptune’s Kingdom and Casino Arcade at the Boardwalk!
Remaining dates for December: 6-9, 14-16, 19-23, 27-28 and times run at 1:00pm, 2:30pm, 4:15pm, 5:45pm, 7:15pm.
*Not all departure times are available on every running date, please check the calendar on the website, https://www.traintochristmastown.com/, for the complete schedule.
Tickets were given for honest review, all opinions are our own.
Oh how fun this would be…wish I could do it with my grandchildren but we’re not that close. Talk about the memories a child would have of this…so cool!
Looks like a lot of fun – I LOVE the colors of the sky in your outdoor pictures.
What a wonderful, fun day to have with family. I love the costumed characters especially the cat! I wish I lived near there, I would go even though my children are older.
That looks like so much fun!
That looks so beautiful! Your daughter looks just like you, beautiful 🙂
Toni-Lynn
It’s too bad that Iowa Holdings still has not paid the vendors that made this Train to Christmas Town happen. Please boycott the 2013 train until Iowa pays what they owe to many local folks in Santa Cruz!