Thomas & James & Percy, Oh My!

City-Kid Review:

So, City-Kid, what do you think of the holiday train show at the New York Botanical Garden?
I loved it because I like James and Thomas chugging around the track.
Anything else that you liked?
Um…I like the diesel train and the ladybug train and the movie.

City Kid has been to the Holiday Train Show every year, even when it felt more suited to us adult children rather than little kids. Nowadays, City Kid loves the pint-sized New York buildings and bridges, along with all of the miniature trains, especially as Thomas makes an appearance. He is usually tucked away in heavily tree-hidden tracks at the far end of the conservatory, and it takes the sharp eyes of kids to find him. Some years even James makes an appearance, too. Which is perfect.

The buildings and bridges are entirely made out of natural products, for example, twigs, acorns, leaves, etc. One of my favorites – if I had to choose – is the enormous Macy’s building in the lobby. But I, also, love Grand Central Station as well as all of the New York mansions and I love, love, love Colney Island! It really is a beautiful exhibition.

Colney Island in its hayday even has a moving roller coaster which slows down as it approaches the ramp up to the speedy downward spiral of the Cyclone. There is, also, an old hotel shaped like an elephant. As someone who loves historical research, this led to a research project. Yes, there was an actual hotel at Colney Island shaped like an elephant, known as the Elephantine Collossus.

The famous Manhattan landmarks are featured, too – Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center – if it’s famous, it’s there. In miniature. Made of tiny twigs and branches. Beautiful.

Need to Knows:

Location: 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10458. You can get the Metro-north train to Botanical Gardens from Grand Central or Harlem 125th street, at Park Avenue. The journey takes about ten minutes. It costs $6.50 off peak, one way.

Entry to the NYBG is free with your NYC-ID card if you have not held a membership since 2012.  Part of the membership fee can go towards taxes as a charitable donation. Membership has a reciprocal relationship with other gardens such as Wave Hill and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Ticket prices vary according to the day. If you purchase a ticket and decide to join, cost of the ticket is taken off membership. It is one of the best investments we have ever made as we go to this garden a lot.

Food Situation: The main cafe sells pizza, sandwiches, soups and salads. A little over-priced but good quality. The gingerbread cafe is set up behind the main glass house and has a variety of over-priced junk food options. I did not see any evidence of their delicious taco truck when we were there, but that doesn’t mean they won’t bring it out on busy days.

Ends January 16th

Top-Tip:

1.If you travel up on Metro North on the weekend, make sure you get City Ticket which costs only $4.00. Also, you can get family fares of $1 per child for up to 4 children, aged 5-11

2.If you have time, make a visit to the Everett Family Garden, where there are tons of train-related activities especially designed for kids.  On the weekends, they have a talented musician playing train songs, while other kids make and color a train ‘puppet’. They brought out instruments while we were there and City-Kid loved bashing cymbals to ‘train, train, coming round the track’. Every so often, depending on the number of children, they create a train parade up to the ‘main depot’ and back, with the musician belting out train-related songs. It is tremendous fun.

Have you visited the Holiday Train Show?

What was your experience like?  What was your City-Kid’s favorite part?
Please tell us all about it, in the comments below.
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