Christmas Train Sets

You will find various Christmas train sets on this web page offered by many of the top suppliers of train sets and lots of information to help you decide which train set is best for your children as far as engine, scale and gauge goes. you may fancy a North Pole express train or an American Flyer train.

Christmas Train Sets

At Yuletide, 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 other electric toys. These other toys and then computers kept train sets off the top five gift list, but is it making a come-back now?

When Americans talk about Christmas train sets, they could be talking about three distinct kinds of electric train. There is the plastic or light-weight variety that is brightly painted with seasonal scenes that just goes round and round the Christmas tree on a very small track.

It can usually toot and play very simple carols, some have a headlamp, some work on batteries while others are mains electric.

Some people have them running around the Christmas tree, while others 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 seasonal decorations.

They typically run from $35 - $75, some feature Mickey others have Santa, some have. both. Lionel Disney Christmas trains are at the top of the list.

Another phenomenon in Christmas train sets is the Polar Express train set, which was invented after the release of the famous children's book and Christmas film. This genre of Christmas train sets takes up the middle quality market and runs 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 train sets.

They have a headlamp, a tender and several types of carriage. The Lionel trains Polar Express is also at the top of this range.

The third type of Christmas train sets are the ones that children of all ages would like to receive as a gift. These are somewhere 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 train set, which you can still add to later.

In America, this market is dominated by Lionel, who have been around since great-grandfather's day. These train sets are authentic and well-made. Lionel trains will last forever, 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 and Far Eastern manufacturers on the first and second tiers.

I know which Christmas train sets I would go for every time - the Lionel electric power locomotive.