Granny's Pantry # 38: The Christmas Train--Annual Tradition

This Christmas Fun rates right on up there with climbing the Himalayas in search of Yeti or dragging the Scottish lochs for Nessie (in perhaps only my humble opinion).  I love and look forward all year to the next Denton Farm Park Country Christmas Train! 

from http://dentonfarmpark.com/country-christmas-train/

[Please don't tell anyone about this place, because if no one else knows, it won't get too crowded and feel like Disney World. (But judging by the line to ride the train this year...the story is already out as this place just might have been featured in NC's Our State magazine.]

It's definitely better to go Dickens' Early (as it has been called), so that you are in place in line for tickets at least 1/2 hour before the gate opens...just in case.  The lights in the lane are better in the dark, but don't take a chance...get on in there before the selfish people do!

This is not your granny's train ride. I'm not telling what all you will see in your once-around-the-park trip...but it will be moving, and fun and inspirational and you might even shed a tear (it has happened). Just keep a close eye out and be prepared to stop mid-ride. [These folks "get" what real Christmas is all about.] 
You will want to have dinner in the exhibit shed--this time it is a bit like a meal at granny's---complete with chicken dumplings and cornbread if you want it.  Do not pass up the General Story and Post Office. They have bottled cokes and little packets of marshmallows that you roast over a fire outside!

There is a petting zoo, pony rides, old grist mill, vintage radio store, doll museum, shoe shop, and old filling station with little cartons of cotton candy in an incredible number of intriguing flavors.

There is a cookie shop and even Santa's House for pictures. And something that looks a lot like an "excabator" for a certain little boy. 

But do not misunderstand. This is Not Disney World. This little place is like going back 50+ years, and that's why it is so special. This is rural Davidson County Country Christmas--oh my heart!

Personal favorites:    

• The Myers Garage--replica of Bobby Myers Garage (former NASCAR driver and father of "Chocolate" Myers)

• The Reid Plantation--restored farm house, threshing barn, old kitchen, and other buildings moved from their original site on Cabin Creek off of the Yadkin River (decorated for the season)      
  

• The Old Jackson Hill Church--best.place.ever.--moved to this location from Jackson Hill, NC (down the road from Granny's house).
  
  
   
  Hear a Christmas story and singing by the Hill-Stuart Family---"Beautiful Star" has never sounded so good! 
  
  And if it is celebrities you want?  Here you go....

  

  Batman! (not sure little boys were impressed)

  And these folks were such VIPs that no one would tell me who they were.
  
  You never know with whom you are rubbing elbows. Should have tried to get autographs!
  
  And I'm fairly certain that You-Know-Who was sitting next to me on the train...
  
  the Big Man in Red with the Beard himself!  
  
  What do you think?  Ho!Ho! Ho! 
         Thankful for Christmas Fun! 
  
  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)