The Polar Express

Magical. That is the only word I can use to describe our night last night! We invited some of our close friends’ children over for a night of watching the Polar Express. It could not have been a better night!

I wanted to make it special for the kids, so after printing up the tickets, I delivered the invitations to their parents the night before the event. The plan was for the parents to put the tickets somewhere fun for the kids to find. A very special invitation. One of the parents put the tickets on their childrens’ pillows to find before they went to sleep. The other set of parents put the tickets on the Christmas tree for the kids to find when they woke up! Needless to say the kids couldn’t wait for the night to begin.

We decorated the tv room with Christmas flag banners draped from the ceiling, and a table set for snacks and of course hot cocoa! And since our family room is not very large, it was perfectly cozy. For me, the icing on the cake was the fact that it was finally cold enough to light a fire, which added to the friendly atmosphere and the feeling of Christmas.

The kids were required to wear their pajamas and bring their tickets for theatre entrance. They were adorable in their pj’s and slippers. Once they arrived, my husband, dressed up as a conductor, opened the door and punched their tickets for the ‘train ride’!

We had blankets strewn on the floor, and pillows to maximize comfort. The kids settled in for a grand theatre experience. And it didn’t disappoint! (did I mention that we bought a subwoofer for this?) The train was so loud it was rattling the walls! It was so fun!

Anyhow, the movie was wonderful and hot chocolate was served. But my favorite thing was at the end of the movie, Bob, having collected all of the tickets, had written 2 letters on each ticket to describe the personality of each child. Once the movie was over, he passed out the tickets and they tried to guess what each one meant. It was so great the things he came up with and how perfectly it fit each child!

It was certainly a night to remember!

-M.

I printed each child's name on the outer envelope (from our bulk stock at the store - $0.35 each),then used Ice Stickles (from M & Co.) to glam it up! The tickets were made by scanning a ticket my friend had, and then adding our own info to it. The insert was also made from the store bulk stock ($0.15 each) and then Ice Stickles added.

All of the decorations were gathered from around my house. Including ornaments straight off my tree! (I think we still might have a couple of these Merry Christmas glitter signs at the store)

My camera never seems to capture the magic of the night. Atleast I know our memories will be magical!