Did you know Santa Train used to take visitors into the woods?
Santa and a Keystone Cop pose for a photo with visitors in 1975. If you or your family have photos from the earlier days of Santa Train that you are willing to share, the Museum would love to see them!
The Museum tradition of Santa Train began back in 1969. The City of Snoqualmie did not look like it does today, and the Snoqualmie Parkway had not yet been constructed. The railway went through the woods via a spur track to where the Snoqualmie Fire Department is now. Santa Train stopped near the start of that spur track, near the bottom of what is now Snoqualmie Parkway. Passengers would disembark into a wintry woodland to meet Santa and receive a gift from him, a tradition that continues today! In the event’s early days, the gift was small compared to the toys the Museum hands out now, usually a candy cane. To help direct visitors, volunteers dressed up as the comical Keystone Cops –sometimes spelled Kops– from the silent movie era.
Families lined up in the snowy woodland, waiting to see Santa. To the left, families stayed warm by a bonfire.
From the beginning, cookies have been a staple of the Santa Train experience. The Museum baked and served cookies out of a coal fired oven inside a railway kitchen car for fifty years, first out of a wood kitchen car, then out of the United States Army Kitchen Car 89601, still on display at Snoqualmie Depot. Today, the Museum serves gourmet cookies baked by the Pacific Cookie Company.
Occasionally, Santa was even able to hop on board to be engineer on the steam locomotive!
In 1988, the new North Bend Depot was built. The Museum was able to offer a longer holiday experience. Visitors would board the train at North Bend Depot for a trip to Snoqualmie where they would meet with Santa in the historic 1890 depot.
Santa listening to a child sharing her wish list inside the Chapel Car. Photo courtesy of Chris Neir.
In 2020, the Museum debuted the Yuletide Express program, where visitors could ride the train and meet Santa on a 25-minute trip while abiding by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The following year, 2021, the Museum debuted the Santa Limited program. Santa Limited started from North Bend like previous Santa Trains but brought visitors to the Railway History Campus instead of Snoqualmie Depot. The spacious Train Shed Exhibit Hall allows all passengers to stay inside, away from the winter chill. Santa greets guests inside the restored 19th-century railway chapel car. The coach is decorated with Victorian-era feeling holiday décor to give it an extra warm and cozy feel. The Museum’s present-day Santa Train experiences have come a long way from where it once was. Today, the Museum offers both Santa Train excursions, Santa Limited and Yuletide Express, running two trains at the same time!
The 2024 Yuletide Express is fully booked, but tickets for Santa Limited are still available. It’s not too late to start a new tradition and make new family memories!
