Our annual outing to see Santa started early on a damp weekend morning. The year before we had taken a later train and had struggled to find somewhere nice to eat afterwards. This year we were on the 11am train, much to Lorna’s disgust as both her and Paul had been out the night before, and we arrived bright and early with plenty off time to get a hot chocolate and mince pie before. Pretty certain that certain members of our party were just topping up from the night before with the Bailey’s in the chocolate but less said about that the better.
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Steamy Santa
With the first of December Xmas starts hotting up. The advent calendars are out, chocolate and Lego in James’ case, and there is talk of getting the tree out already. Last year we had been on the North York Moors Railway to see Santa and we decided to do the same this year. All in all there were twelve us on the train as we were going with our friends Lorna and Paul.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare and headed to get our mince pie and hot drink. Here we discovered a new winter drink, hot chocolate with Baileys. Yum Yum, we will definitely be doing that at home with our proper hot chocolate. As the train pulled into the station the kids got excited, so we headed across the bridge and jumped on.
This year was different, Santa walked along the train rather than being in a grotto and there was an elf per carriage who provided entertainment for the whole of the trip, from songs to games, it was really run, especially the audience participation.
When Santa finally arrived, there was one person more excited than the rest. With children flying in all directions, Barbara moved so fast she was a blur as she threw herself at Santa. Santa greeted her with open arms and I can honestly say sparks flew, as to whether it was from Barbara and Santa or the breaks as he pulled the emergency stop chord, I will never know. Either way, things certainly heated up.
Once Santa had managed to escape it was time for the children to see Santa. They absolutely loved it. He asked them what they wanted for Christmas and then gave them a present. The two of them could not have been more excited.
After Santa’s visit, there was time for one more song. This time it was the Twelve Days of Christmas along with some actions. Our friendly elf had a different action and prop for each line and everyone joined in with good spirits.
Once we got back to Pickering it was time to head back to York and dinner. We all headed to The Nags Head in Askham Bryan for tea. It was a lovely day out and everyone really enjoyed it. Will we do the same next year or will we go somewhere else? Only the magic of Christmas will tell.