The Fort Wayne Santa Train

Living near Indianapolis, we have a lot of fun train rides for kids and I have a toddler who loves trains, so I figured there was no better way to see Santa than to take him on a train ride with Santa aboard.  Just two hours northeast of Indy you can take your family to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Museum to ride the Santa Train.

Inside their station, aka “Santa’s Workshop,” they have model trains on display for kids to see, as well as two full-size steam engines. One of the steam engines is the iconic engine no. 765.  Your kids are allowed to climb inside a steam engine and sit in the engineer’s seat: your little ones will love seeing all the gauges and levers as well as the coal hopper. Also inside the station, there are snacks and souvenirs available for purchase.

The Santa train ride is around 20 minutes long, which was perfect for my preschool-aged children and the best part is that Santa rides along in the train car with you! Kids can sit on his lap at any point of the ride while you take that perfect Christmas train photo. Plus, you have to admit, family pictures in a caboose make for great Christmas cards too.

The Fort Wayne Santa train runs the first three weekends in December from 9 am-5 pm each day.

But here’s the secret: you have to buy your tickets on the day they go on sale in November.  Don’t be late. They go fast and if I were you I’d visit their webpage and click on the link to have them e-mail you a reminder of when the tickets go on sale so you are sure to get them.

While you’re in Fort Wayne, we have a ton of ideas for things to do with kids in Fort Wayne.

Find all Indy holiday events here.