It’s hard to believe that the holidays are just around the corner, I’m longing for cool weather that I can curl up under warm fleece blankets on the sofa with the fireplace roaring while watching some of my favourite holiday movies with A. I know we aren’t quite there yet, but I am already planning ahead. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, and when it comes to must-do activities for our family, one sticks out right in front and we’re excited it’s roaring back into Squamish again!
The Polar Express is one of my favourite movies, with just enough action to keep A entranced and enough heartwarming story to make it a movie we constantly watch through the holiday season. When A was big enough, and we saw how much the magic of Santa brought her joy, we knew The Polar Express Train Ride was next on our list. With each year inching us closer to her no longer believing in the magic of Santa and the North Pole, I want to make sure to squeeze in as many memories as we can!
Run by the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish, BC The Polar Express Train Ride very quickly became a BC family favourite (and then some!) with families having an excuse to don their Christmas jammies all day and fall into the magic that is the Polar Express. The Polar Express Train Ride in Squamish boasts being the only of it’s kind in Western Canada and even includes the iconic souvenir golden ticket to commemorate your ride.
Enjoy a 50 minute Polar Express-themed train ride complete with live actors, delicious hot chocolate, and a chocolate chip cookie – just like the movie! The kids had a fun time interacting with the conductor who in true Polar Express fashion showered them in golden ticket clippings, and danced and sang to their favourite songs from the movie – including “Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate”. First class tickets include a fun commemorative mug that we still use 2 years later for our Christmas hot chocolates.
Included in your train ride is a memorable visit to the “north pole” at the train station, kids can enjoy lots of crafts, the chance to decorate a gingerbread cookie, and a ride on a mini train around the train station and end the visit with a photo op with none other than Santa & Mrs. Claus.
Event Information:
When: Weekends from November 25 – December 17, 2017
Saturday, November 25th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | 6 pm |
Sunday, November 26th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | |
Saturday, December 2nd | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | 6 pm |
Sunday, December 3rd | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | |
Saturday, December 9th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | 6 pm |
Sunday, December 10th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | |
Saturday, December 16th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm | 6 pm |
Sunday, December 17th | 10 am | 12 pm | 2 pm | 4 pm |
Where: West Coast Railway Heritage Park | 39645 Government Road Squamish, B.C. (And the North Pole!)
Tickets: COACH Class $35.00+GST & FIRST Class $52.50+GST – see what is included at wcra.org
Important Information:
- Parking is available on location and is $5 per car (cash)
- There are NO washrooms available on the train so make sure to make a pit stop before boarding
- The Polar Express is wheelchair accessible
- Souvenirs can be purchased at The North Pole gift shop
- Make sure to listen for the bell… only those who believe can still hear it.
The Westcoast Railway Association wants to send one lucky fan and their family to experience The Polar Express themselves! Contest is open to residents of British Columbia, the winner will receive 4 tickets to any 10:00 am train with available seating. Winner will have 24 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be drawn. Contest closes November 7th. Ready to win? Head over to our Facebook Page!
{Disclosure: We’re sharing this event in partnership with WCRA, all opinions and love of the Polar Express are our own.}
Our favorite tradition is hanging our new christmas ornaments on the tree each year.
Favourite Christmas tradition is our kid created advent calendar filled with family activities.
A favourite Christmas tradition is taking the kids to go look at all the lights with a cup of hot chocolate. It’s an inexpensive way to enjoy a great family outing
My favourite Christmas tradition is spending Christmas eve at my grandparents. Been doing it since I was a young child and continued to do it once I had my son!!
My favorite Christmas tradition is driving around looking at all the Christmas lights
We live watching Christmas movies on Christmas Eve!!!
Our favourite Christmas tradition is all four of us dressed in matching pjs 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree and house with the kids as Christmas carols play and we sing along,laughing and enjoying each other’s company
I love looking at Christmas lights.
My favorite part of Christmas is watching my children open their presents .
Our favourite Christmas tradition is all four of us dress in matching pjs 🙂
Favourite tradition, we do Christmas Eve boxes with pjs, books and snacks. We’ll stay up late and watch a holiday movie
Omg I’d LOVE to win this. It looks like so much fun and my youngest still believes
My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree, Christmas baking, and driving around to look at Christmas lights
Fave tradition is xmas eve pajamas
My fav Christmas tradition is taking our girls to see Chriatmas lights. Watchung their eyes light up is such a beautiful sight
Our Santa visit each year is extra magical – Santa’s summer house is in our complex so he is one of our neighbours! My daughter adores him, and Mrs. Claus, and we look forward to our visit for a photo every year.
My favourite Christmas tradition is bundling up and going down town to see the Santa clause parade, taking part in all the Christmas activities they have down there and coming home putting on my Christmas pjs baking cookies watching holiday movies and having hot chocolate 🙂 this year I get to do it all with my two beautiful babies and start making family tradition of our own to do each year ! ❤️❤️
My Fav Christmas tradition is getting pjs on Christmas Eve!
My favorite Christmas tradition is bundling up and seeing all the Christmas lights and displays ❤️
My favorite Christmas tradition is watching all the sappy, cheesy Christmas movies I can!
One of our Fav christmas traditions is to cuddle up on xmas eve with xmas movies, books and new jammies while enjoying delicious hot coco and setting up for Santas arrival <3
My favourite Christmas tradition is opening matching pyjamas on Christmas Eve with extended family and then drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music as we track Santa and spend time together.
Favourite Christmas tradition is setting up the tree and family Christmas dinner
Our favourite tradition is the Stanley Park train every year!
We have always wanted to go on the polar express, this would be a dream come true for my son! Our favourite Christmas tradition is getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve and leaving cookies for santa! Thanks for the opportunity
We like to sit around the fire outside and watch the sky for Santa Claus
My favourite Christmas tradition is going as a family to pick out our Christmas tree, going home having dinner and then decorating the tree and then end the evening off with a chocolate fondue!
Our family tradition is to open all the presents early except for ones from dad….who is our official santa. Then the kids spend boxing day til New year’s with grandparents.
We like to go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our tree, see the animals, and drink hot chocolate by the fire!
Our favorite Christmas Tradition is opening New pajamas on Christmas eve and our Gingerbread House decorating night. We would love to add the Polar Express to our Christmas traditions ?
My favourite Christmas tradition is having the family home all day.
My favourite Christmas tradition…it’s so hard to choose! I love them all. But, I’m loving our girls’ Elf on a Shelf. They are 5 and 3 and they absolutely love their elf and seeing their faces light up when she comes back for Christmas is so awesome. I wish it were a thing when I was little xo
Gotta love baking cookies and watching Christmas movies as a yearly tradition!
Our favorite christmas tradition is the gift giving, going to church on christmas eve followed by our traditional ‘noche buena’ (christmas eve dinner), and of course Santa Clause who plays a vital role in our kids lives.
Our favourite Christmas tradition is putting on music, drinking hot chocolate and decorating our tree as family ?❤
Our favorite Christmas tradition is getting the perfect tree!
Our favorite Christmas trsdition is baking and getting Christmas pajamas in matching patterns.
My favourite tradition is Candlelight service and going to The Nutcracker
Our favourite Christmas tradition is putting on our new Christmas pyjamas, making hot chocolate and watching Mr. Bean’s Christmas special before bed on Christmas Eve.
My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating our home with my daughter and singing Christmas songs while we’re getting in the festive mood.
Baking cookies as a family and enjoying hot chocolate and cookies by the fire, while watching some Christmas movies! Polar Express is my sons’ favourite.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is watching Polar Express Christmas Eve. We make treats and hot Coco watch our movie and then it bed time with having amazing magical dreams of Santa’s visit.
My favourite Christmas tradition is looking at lights Christmas Eve all piled in the car listening to NORAD Santa watch.
The best Christmas tradition of our family is having my moms Italian bread donuts for breakfast yummm
We love pulling out all the Christmas books and adding a new one every year. And playing with the Fisher Price nativity scene.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is driving around looking at all the Christmas lights and displays
My favourite Christmas tradition is having the whole family over for a sleepover Christmas Eve. We have so much fun!
Our favourite Christmas tradition is opening on gift on Christmas eve and leaving Santa some milk and cookies.
our favourite tradition is reading the Night Before Christmas
Making cinnamon buns Christmas Eve and curling up in our Jammie’s to watch Christmas movies.
My favorite Christmas tradition is making homemade hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and watching Muppets Christmas carol with the family!
My favourite Christmas tradition is heading to the Aquarium and seeing Scuba Claus!
Our favourite tradition is the day we set up the Christmas tree, with rum and egg nog, Christmas music followed by a Christmas movie. My favourite holiday and I’m so excited to share it this year with our 1 year old daughter!
My favorite tradition is eating Chinese food on Christmas eve and then reading Twas the night before Christmas
Our tradition is to d I’ve around and check out all the Xmas lights!
Love putting up the tree!
My favourite Christmas tradition is how my gramma always leaves us a little wrapped gift at our spot at the table. She’s been doing it since before I was born.
Oh gosh I love so many of our Christmas traditions! I guess I would say my favourite is decorating our Christmas tree with ornaments that we collect from all our travels and adventures – wherever we go and whatever we do we buy a Christmas ornament for our tree, so it has become a very International tree. It’s so much fun decorating each year because each ornament we put on has a story to go with it and we spend hours reminiscing about great times spent together as a family.
Our favourite Christmas tradition is baking cookies together for Santa and our neighbours!
Our favourite tradition is waking up to a big Christmas breakfast and opening gifts in our stockings. Also staying in our pjs all day!
We love looking at Christmas lights !
My favourite Christmas tradition is to have dinner with my family and extended family before attending midnight mass. Then we would open the huge pile of presents after coming home from mass so we would start doing that about 1:30am. After that my husband and I would sleep until it was time to celebrate Christmas Day with his side of our family around noon.
Our family tradition is to decorate the tree every year on Dec 1 (or as close to that date as we can) and then open the first gift of the season – a new ornament for our tree for each child. It’s so special to watch them hang their new treasures up. The holidays are such an amazing time! ❤️
PIcking out the perfect tree is our favourite tradition!
My fiance is Mr. Christmas. No lie. We do what feels like a million Christmassy things every year. We start with the Christmas Trees at the Hyatt, get Hot Chocolate from Mink, and I think this year, we are going to do the hop on hop off carol bus ride, Van Duesen, Glow (In Langley!), and we have such a yen to try the Polar Express Train Ride! We were just looking it up the other night! It looks so nice.
My favourite tradition is making lefse with the family.
We love driving around looking at Christmas displays! FlyOver Canada, Bright Nights, Vandusen ?
Decorating cookies
Our son was born on December 1st via C-section due to complications but that didn’t hold us or wait I should say “ME” back from trekking out the West Coast Woods Tree Farm to find our very first family Christmas tree. The tradition has been getting more amazing every year!
Favorite Christmas tradition. Watching polar express on Christmas eve dressed in Christmas jammies drinking hot coco.
My favorite Christmas tradition is new pajamas and a book on Christmas Eve.. and waking up at like 4 am to open the stockings! !
Our favourite Christmas tradition is driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights
My favourite Christmas tradition is stringing popcorn and gum drops with my family while listening to carols.
My second favourite is forgetting to make the Christmas log with my Mom. We forget nearly every year, and everyone finds it hilarious.
Annual cookie bake and trade is one of my favourite Christmas traditions
My son’s love the polar express so much they gave me a tiny bell for christmas along with a card made my them. Our family tradition is to snuggle & watch the movie along with hot chocolate & have our cat sweetpea & grandma watch with us. Its a magical time of the year for all ages as well as make homemade decorations and put the tree up together and do rhings together i didn’t do as a child my grandparents we’re old school they didnt have much growing up so this together is a added bonus.
Our favorite tradition is making cookies for Santa!
My favourite Christmas tradition is going to cut down our own Christmas tree each year and then decorating it all together!
We love opening PJs on Christmas Eve!
We go to the Christmas tree farm every year and chop down the tree, and then head for brunch and hot chocolate.
Christmas neighbourhood walk taking in all the lights and decorations and greeting the neighbours. 🙂
We’ve gone for the last three years and it’s become a tradition.
Every year we go and chop down our own Christmas tree at a local farm.
This looks great! I’ve heard really good things from many people. Perhaps we’ll have to try it out this Christmas.
I love Squamish! Would love to take my kids to this too
My favoutire Christmas Tradition is getting my kids excited about Father Christmas on Christmas Eve- putting the carrots, mince pies and whisky out for him and the reindeer on Christmas Eve and reading Christmas stories 🙂
Our favorite Christmas tradition is going to walk and look at all the Christmas lights on Trinity Street In Vancouver Bc. Its a gorgeous light display of about 7 blocks of house after house of beautiful lights and displays. We love it.
I love getting together with my parents, twin sister, and our families on Christmas Eve. We eat a big dinner, watch the fire channel (isn’t it such a thrill when the hand puts a new log on?*L*) and track Santa’s progress on NORAD. Then all 5 kids open a new pair of pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa before bed. It’s the best day of the year!
Another tradition I love is starting the Advent countdown!!!
Favourite Christmas traditions for me are going skiing and checking out the lights. Favourite traditions according to my son see the lights and singing Frosty the Snowman
Our favourite tradition is driving around and looking at all the lights, making a special stop at Rae street in PoCo!
My daughter has the fondest memories of this movie, watches it every Christmas, Reminds her of her aunt who lives far away.
Would love to win tickets, take kids and make it a reality for them <3
our family always watching Christmas movies like home alone
This looks like a blast!
Christmas Eve before bed, reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to my girls just like my Dad did to me and my brothers.
Favourite tradition is putting up the tree and watching Christmas Vacation
Favourite family tradition. Walks in the snow to see all the lights.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is turning the fireplace on in our matching christmas pj’s to watch the Polar Express movie before my girls head off to bed.
Every Christmas Day we walk as a family to our local Starbucks for a coffee and hot chocolates. It’s especially wonderful when it snows!
My favourite Christmas tradition is going to church for the Christmas Eve service followed by a dinner of festive appetizers and Christmas movies with my family.
I would like to win.