The much-loved Canadian Pacific Kansas City CPKC Holiday Train, known as the Christmas Train, arrived in Toronto over the weekend. There’s actually two decorated trains, making many stops along the festive journey through Canada and the US. to bring Christmas cheer to communities along the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway’s network.
The US Train kicked off the journey on November 19 from Montreal Wes, jukes through southern Ontario then heads down to Chicago to Kansas City before circling back into Canada to wrap up in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, on December 21. The Canadian Train departed on November 23, visiting Lac-Megantic, Sherbrooke and Farnham before heading west on December 20th to Port Moody, British Columbia. But on Saturday night, the Christmas Train made its big appearance in Toronto.
The train pulled into Lambton Yards, the historic railway freight yard located at 750 Runnymede Rd in the west end of Toronto. The nearly ½ km long Christmas Trains was beautifully decorated with thousands of LED lights and seasonal decorations. Arriving right on time to an enthusiastic crowd, the illuminated train arriving opened up the box-car doors to reveal a stage with live musical performance by Teigen Gayse and Jade Eagleson of Christmas carols and holiday favourites.
After the event, the mass exodus from Lambton Yards began. Thousands of families all heading through the parking lot to hop into minivans or wait for the Runnymede bus. With Demaras Racing’s mini monster truck / Christmas Truck strategically parked at the close end of the parking lot, fully lit-up, folks stopped and took pictures with the rolling light-show.
As the crowd thinned, a special guest stopped by! A local Kris Kringle at the festive event had finished his shift, and was headed back home to ‘feed the reindeer’. When he caught a glimpse of the inflatable Santa Clause poking out the passenger window of the GMC, he climbed in for a photo-op and a couple minutes with the seat heater!
Those poor souls who got stuck waiting for the next bus on Runnymede zipped back across the parking lot for the rare moment. A picture with Santa Claus in the front (and back) seat of a monster truck covered in Christmas lights and illuminated by underglow. That’s just not something you see every day!
Loved both the samtas 😃! Yup not an everyday affair and a picture of a lifetime.
It was just SO COOL than Santa was randomly walking by after the event. I had to drag him over to the truck… but once he felt the seat-heater, he stuck around!
It was nice to see little kids enjoying the moment.
Fun times. Good looking Santas.
Only the best in Toronto!
But rumour has it that Santa got on the train in Kansas City and has been on the whole journey.
That’s awesome. Makes me want to put lights on the jeep…
I used to see Jeep guys with a piece of cardboard over their grill in winter covered with a wreath. I copied them, then added lights… and it never ended.
Hmm. A wreath zip-tied to the front grill would be pretty easy…
And they sell strings of LED lights powered by D-cell batteries, so you wouldn’t even need to attach it to the battery.