Christmas Train Sets

You will find various Christmas train sets on this web page offered by many of the top suppliers of Christmas train sets and lots of information to help you come to a decision about which train set is best for your children.

Christmas Train Sets

At Christmas, train sets were one of the most welcome presents of the decades between 1930 and 1960. In those days children dreamed of receiving new Christmas train sets or additions to their existing train sets. The idea of Christmas train sets seemed to die out in the late Sixties and Seventies with the advent of Scalectrix. Other toys and then computers kept Christmas train sets off the top five gift list, but is it making a come-back now?

Nowadays, when people, especially Americans, talk about Christmas train sets, they could be talking about three distinct kinds of Christmas train sets. There is the plastic or light-weight variety that is brightly painted with Christmas scenes that just goes round and round on a very small track. It usually can toot and play very simple Christmas carols; some have a headlamp. Some people have them running round and round the Christmas tree other people set them up on a table. These types of Christmas train sets run from the cheap and nasty to the quite collectible, but they are really only a mobile addition to traditional fairy lights and other illuminated Christmas decorations. They typically run from $35 - $75, some feature Mickey others have Santa, some both.

Another phenomenon in Christmas train sets is the Polar Express train set type, which became famous after the release of the famous children's book and Christmas film. However, despite being one of the genre of Christmas train sets, these take up the middle quality market and run from the pretty good to very good.

There are the radio-controlled North Pole Express Christmas train sets by Ricoda and a fairly collectible Thomas Kinkade Christmas Express Train Collection for little more than the top end of the Christmas tree Christmas train sets in the first section. It has a headlamp, a tender and several types of carriage.

The third type of Christmas train sets are the one that children of all ages would like to receive. These are on a stage between being a toy and a model. You can buy a basic starter kit and add to it or go the whole hog and buy a complete set, which you can still add to later. In America, this market is dominated by Lionel, who have been around since grandfather's day. These train sets are authentic and well-made. A Lionel train set will last 50-100 years, if cared for and can be passed down through the family's generations.

There are other players in the Christmas train sets market too, mostly European manufacturers on the Lionel level an Far Eastern manufacturers on the first and second tiers.

I know which Christmas train sets I would go for every time.