Christmas & Trains

[Joe323]

Just Curious Anyone know how the history of trains under the tree at Christmas Started?

[RAM]

Just a guess.  I would think that it started by the parents buy the boy a train and the dad had to put it together to see if it worked.  Now where would Santa put it under or around the tree.

[tac]

Christmas tree pot = round

Basic train set in the olden days = round

Please note how well one fits around the other.

Da-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

tac
www.ovgrs.org

[ebtbob]

Merry Christmas All,

       I do know that it is all that obvious Tac.   However,  I don't care how it started,  I am just glad it did.   From the Lionels under the tree came love for model trains that I still enjoy today.
       Actually,  as I think of it,  remembering some of the old Lionel and American Flyer ads in the catalogs that came out before Christmas,   there were images of a boy and his trains under the tree.   Maybe that was how it got started.

[pipefitter]

I grew up in the Washington DC area and the family had lots of cousins in Baltimore. I fondly remember visiting them as almost all had an O guage layout at their house. In addition, "train gardens" are a tradition at Baltimore Fire Houses. I think I read somewhere that Christmas Gardens with little villages were a tradition brought by German immigrants to the Baltimore area. Here's some links:

http://www.wavfc.com/traingarden.php

http://www.bigindoortrains.com/primer/trains_n_christmas/trains_n_christmas.htm

http://www.wvmgrs.org/TrainGardens.htm

Merry Christmas everyone, Robert

[Joe323]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  As with everyone else We have a train and village under our tee. I also have my 2-6-2 Steam loco out for the holiday on my main layout which normally all diesel. Merry Christmas

Joe

[Rashputin]

   I saw a program about Lionel trains and the beginning of trains around the Christmas tree according to them was when someone made one for a store display that ran around the tree in a department store display window.  The display window always had a crowd around it, both children and adults, and the store had hundreds of requests to sell the display train.  After that, the creator of the display started building the first "train sets" as opposed to train toys that children could push along the floor.  I recall them saying that Gilbert of Gilbert Toys fame was the person who built the display, but for some reason that doesn't seem right to me.  Maybe I remember it incorrectly.

  I know that there were operating trains on tracks sold in Germany earlier than that, though, I just don't know if they were clockwork rather than electric or something like that which would make the first electric train around the tree the one in the display window.

 Another theory for the theory bin.


  MERRY CHRISTMAS

[Heave]

I fondly remember those train gardens in Baltimore. Quite a few back in the day.

The Fire Halls were very good about it. One in particular is near the oldest bridge inside Baltimore (Close to the old Ma & Pa line towards Jones Falls) and they dedicate a whole bay to trains each year when we would visit among others.