Toot toot, All Aboard The Minivan Express!
Click here to download your golden tickets!
Don’t drive a mini-van? Don’t worry, page 2 has “Christmas Express” tickets, so you can make it work for your family no matter what you’re driving, it could even be a sleigh! ;o) wink…wink…
So what are these golden tickets for?
Ready to start a Christmas tradition that the whole family will enjoy? I know you’ve all seen The Polar Express, well, this is our own version of that fun adventure! Each year we hide the “Golden Tickets” in our kids’ beds. My husband starts the bedtime routine as usual, while I prepare little bags of popcorn and hot chocolate drinks and place them in the car, oh and don’t forget to have Christmas music playing in the car too!
When the kids go to climb into bed, they will find the ticket hidden under their covers, get ready for lots of giggles and screams as they all find their tickets! The kids are then instructed to grab their slippers and head for the car.
Upon entrance to The Minivan Express, we hole punch the ticket (you know for effect and all.) Next, we travel around the city looking at all the beautiful lights. We may even stop somewhere for a fun snack on the way home. Now the kids look forward to this each year and look forward to getting “those special tickets”!
Some trip ideas for you:
- Check online for best Christmas Lights in your area! Pack up your car with popcorn in rudolf cups, hot chocolate in coffee mugs (with a lid!), and Christmas music! Enjoy driving around your neighborhood checking out all the Christmas lights!
- Check your local Barnes & Noble, most years they do “The Polar Express “ for story time, all the kids come in their jammies, and ours gave out little jingle bells to all the kids!
- Ice Skating: If you have a local outdoor ice rink, check out prices and times, and go ice skating!
- Polar Express Lapbook Printables: Since this idea was taken from The Polar Express, I thought I’d add a link for more fun activities: The Polar Express.
- North Pole: Check online for North Pole exhibits in your area, some even have a train the kids can ride on!
- Santa Claus: Pack the kids in the car and take a trip to see Santa at your local mall and get their pictures taken!
What a great idea. You are such a fun mom! We may have to do a version of this. Thank you for sharing!
How fun! I just read this book to my son yesterday for the first time. I will have to do the whole ticket thing Fri when we were going to look at Christmas lights! Thanks for sharing!
That is a great idea! I love looking at Christmas light. We’ll have to remember to do this.
I Love the Idea of the tickets!! We were planning on taking our kiddos out next week and surprising them after they had already gotten into bed etc…. I was wondering if you’d do a version that just had “the light express” or something like that? We don’t have a minivan.
Anyway, just thought I’d ask. Thanks for all you GREAT and FUN ideas!!!
Hi Donna,
)
The 2nd page of the download is called “The Christmas Express” for those of you without a minivan
You’re so good! You think of everything~
Sorry I missed page 2. 
We were going to go look at lights Saturday night! Gonna use your idea for the little kids! What fun Erika! Thanks so much for doing the “work” for us!
~Jana
This is AWESOME!!! My children love watching Polar Express. I am going to do this super fun activity THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am beyond excited
Thank you so much for sharing!!
We just used these last weekend to go to our Barnes and Noble for the Polar Express night. Thanks, Erica! The kids loved it!
Andrea @ myhomeschooltale.blogspot.com
that is the neatest thing i have seen all year!!! Thank goodness I follow your blog and can “borrow” your creative ideas as I would of never come up with this!! Thank you so much for sharing.
Every year we enjoy driving around looking at the Christmas lights. This just upped the fun factor! Thank you!
What a great idea! We always find a night or two for Christmas light looking, but how fun to make it a surprise!
This is such a great idea! We just went to a big light exhibit last night – I wish I had seen this before that! I am pinning it for next year
Too cold to get out, or too far from big city lights? Check out http://www.noradsanta.org to play fun games and track Santa’s Christmas Eve progress using Google Earth. This website helps me get my kids to bed on time every Christmas Eve!
From the NORAD website: “For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight.
The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.
In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on the tradition of tracking Santa.
Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to phone calls and emails from children all around the world. In addition, we now track Santa using the Internet. Millions of people who want to know Santa’s whereabouts now visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source to provide updates on Santa’s journey.”
Really! Check it out!
That sounds like so much fun! Thanks for the idea, and for sharing those printables.
Love this idea!!! We actually JUST watched the movie again tonight…. Its a family favorite!!
What a simple idea, but I never would have thought of it. This is a beautiful tradition–can’t wait to add it to our arsenal.
what a cool idea!!! can’t wait to spring that one on my gk I’ve used imaginary tickets to ride the swings and we sing a song about where we are going but, the actual tickets would be fun. thanks so much for sharing
Merry Christmas!
This is a spectacular idea!! I printed them out and plan on hiding them in their beds tonight!!! We were going to Nature in Lights tonight anyway, this just made it that much more fun!! Thanks so much for sha. ring!!
What a fantastic, creative idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea. I can’t wait to do this!!! Thanks for sharing all your great ideas.
This is absolutely adorable! They actually have a railroad trip in our area that does the Polar Express, but not only do tickets sell out fast, it is EXTREMELY expensive. This is such a great way to bring that book to life for any family. Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely adore this idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for sharing! I cannot wait to do this!
Thank you so much for this adorable idea!! We used the tickets, surprised the girls, and it was fantastic!! It is definitely going to be an annual event for our family. LOVE!!!
I just want to thank you for this idea and printable. We did it last night on a whim and they loved it soooo much. At first my 7 year old got up set when she found out we weren’t going on a real train, but she had a blast anyway. This is how I know we are doing it again next year: My 3 year would not let go of his ticket when we got home. He went to bed with it. He got up a couple of times in the middle of the night and still had his ticket in his hand. It was so sweet to see him walk into the living room this morning still holding on to his ticket. He is still holding it as I’m writing this. It was so special to him.
We had asked someone in our ward who lives in a gated community if we could come to their neighborhood, then she calls me back and said she left out candy canes for the kids. So sweet. We ended up driving about 30 minutes to where my sister lives because we had found out there were a couple of houses who did that light show with the music thing and at the last minute we decided to drop by her house and we sang Jingle Bells and Christmas Bells are Ringing (they had been learning that in Primary). Funny thing is that my sister was doing the same thing (without the tickets)!! Christmas pajamas, picture in front of the tree, popcorn and hot chocolate and the same houses! We had gotten there just in time, it was so funny! She is definitely doing the Christmas Express next year.
I love love love this idea! I’m going to share it on my blog if that’s ok with you. My kiddies are a bit too young this year, but I’m definitely going to do this next Christmas. Thanks so much for sharing.