Ride the real Polar Express with Santa in London

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the animated film, The Polar Express, and the train arrives for the first time with Santa in London from now until 23 December.

The Polar Express, the award-winning children’s book by American writer and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg, has become synonymous with Christmas.
In the story, a little boy climbs aboard The Polar Express steam train that magically appears on Christmas Eve in front of his house. The train takes him and some other children on a journey to the North Pole. He receives a sleigh bell from Santa, loses it and is heartbroken. On Christmas day, Santa returns his bell, confirming to the little boy that Santa exists. He’s able to hear the bell, but his parents cannot.
Steam trains and Christmas have been linked well before the book was published in 1985 (and made into an animated film in 2004), however. Model train sets were seen circling in holiday window displays of Macy’s, the major retailer in the US, as early as 1883; while in the UK, model railways became popular with the 1920s Hornby Clockwork Train Set and appeared in holiday display windows in the mid 1930s at London’s Whiteley’s department store.
“It felt like magic for people to be able to stay in touch with each other, travel and send packages after the Industrial Revolution,” explained Dr Matthew Teichman, a philosopher with a film studies background and adjunct professor of computer science at the University of Chicago. “[Rail travel] was socially transformative.”