There's only one Polar Express Train Ride in Wisconsin. How Christmas magic makes it sell out every year at National Railroad Museum

Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·10 min read
Doug Grant of Ashwaubenon is well known as one of the conductors of The Polar Express Train Ride at the National Railroad Museum. As a volunteer, he's been stepping into the role for the last 16 years. He even dyes his mustache to get into character.
Doug Grant of Ashwaubenon is well known as one of the conductors of The Polar Express Train Ride at the National Railroad Museum. As a volunteer, he's been stepping into the role for the last 16 years. He even dyes his mustache to get into character.

ASHWAUBENON - Doug Grant likes to joke that it’s “the largest pajama party in Green Bay.”

Every year around this time, thousands of families come to the National Railroad Museum in matching holiday PJs in every pattern imaginable, from Grinches and candy canes to plaids and reindeer, to hear those two words that signal the start of a Green Bay Christmas tradition.

“All aboard!”

So begins The Polar Express Train Ride — an event so warm and fuzzy that Dads and toddlers alike wear their most festive onesies for an adventure through the classic Christmas story.

Families first snuggle in for a dramatic reading of “The Polar Express” children’s book by Chris Van Allsurg among the museum’s rolling stock and decorated trees inside the Lenfestey Center, as images from the story show on a big screen. Then it’s outside to board a vintage train car for a ride to the North Pole with actors portraying characters from the beloved 2004 movie of the same name.

That’s where Grant comes in. For the last 16 of the event’s 17 years he’s been portraying Tom Hanks’ character of Conductor. Even dyes his mustache and sacrifices his gray goatee to do it.

“I go full bore, and all my friends and coworkers give me a hard time about it for the month that I’m donning a black mustache on a 61-year-old man,” said Grant, who admits it’s a shock to him every morning when he looks in the mirror.

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It’s not just the actors who get into “The Polar Express.” Audiences get immersed in it, too. As the train chugs along the tracks, the passengers help find a lost ticket, look out at polar bears, wolves in the wilderness and the northern lights, sing together, pretend to be reindeer, get through a spin-out on Glacier Gulch, ring bells and meet a certain someone in a famous red suit.

There’s something magical about it all.

“As a human, it is so much more fun when you get to be a part of something opposed to just watching something,” said Jacqueline Frank, CEO of the National Railroad Museum. “Suddenly you’re in your pajamas, you’re a character on this train going to the North Pole. It doesn’t matter if you’re 40 years old or 80 years old or a toddler ... everyone gets to play a little bit and step back in time, maybe into your own childhood.”

A conductor addresses passengers on The Polar Express Train Ride as it make its way to the North Pole from the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon. All 12,000-plus tickets for this year's four-weekend event sold out in 24 hours.
A conductor addresses passengers on The Polar Express Train Ride as it make its way to the North Pole from the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon. All 12,000-plus tickets for this year's four-weekend event sold out in 24 hours.

All 12,480 tickets sold out in less than 24 hours in July

Since its humble beginnings in 2006 with four shows on a single weekend, The Polar Express Train Ride has become not only one of Green Bay’s centerpiece annual holiday traditions, alongside WPS Garden of Lights at Green Bay Botanical Garden, but a draw so popular it sells out already in the heat of summer.

All 12,480 tickets for this year’s 40 performances across four weekends from Nov. 18 through Dec. 11 were scooped up in less than 24 hours after they went on sale July 25. That’s more tickets than the 2003 Elton John concert at the Resch Center, the largest crowd in the arena’s history at 10,414.

Sellouts are nothing new for The Polar Express Train Ride. The entire run of shows has been selling out for 10 years or more, Frank said, but it often takes until October for the last of the tickets to disappear. This year was “extraordinarily fast.”

The event was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. It resumed last year with COVID-19 protocols in place and still sold out, albeit more slowly. But for the many families who come every holiday season, the nostalgic tug of tradition is undeniable this year.

“They come back with their parents and their grandparents and children, and families grow. It’s become this really wonderful Christmas tradition in this area. People want to come back to that. They want to spend that time together. It’s comforting,” Frank said. “You’re spending that time together in a very safe, comfortable, homey environment, and I think people are looking for that again.”

There’s one family who shows up in new matching jammies each season. One set of grandparents has been purchasing all 20 seats on the lounge side of the Spirit of the Season train car every year nearly since the event began. Their grandkids who were once toddlers are now in their teens.

And shhhh, don’t tell anybody, but sometimes grownups outnumber kids.

“It’s not uncommon to see a group of about 10 people show up in a party and only have one child with them. All the rest of the adults just wanted to come see it,” Grant said. “It’s pretty comical when you get a lot of people coming and they use the kids as an excuse to be here.”

Justin Lambrecht, education director at the National Railroad Museum, does a dramatic reading of "The Polar Express" as Hero Boy for a sold-out audience.
Justin Lambrecht, education director at the National Railroad Museum, does a dramatic reading of "The Polar Express" as Hero Boy for a sold-out audience.

It's the National Railroad Museum's biggest fundraiser of the year

The National Railroad Museum is one of just 39 sites in the United States and Canada licensed by Colorado-based Rail Events Inc. to host The Polar Express Train Ride. It’s the only location in Wisconsin. The next closest, Union Station in Chicago, is not hosting the event this year, which makes Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois (a 360-mile drive from Green Bay) the nearest chance to catch a ride on The Polar Express.

Patrons come from not just northeastern Wisconsin, but Milwaukee, Madison, Wausau and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the experience, Frank said.

Rail Events Inc. has “The Polar Express” licensing through Warner Bros. and acts as the intermediary between host sites and the studio to ensure the continuity and integrity of the brand. The National Railroad Museum gets contracted five years at a time to produce the event after passing inspections of the show.

“They’re really particular about it. They have a very long contract, and there’s a lot of things we need to do so we’re hitting Warner Bros.’ levels of quality. Not everyone is able to do that,” Frank said.

It’s a big undertaking for the National Railroad Museum, a nonprofit that counts on the event as its biggest fundraiser of the year to keep the doors open during the quiet months of January through March and to provide programming to more than 12,000 children each year.

It takes 75 volunteers and the museum’s staff of 20 to make it come to life every night. Some volunteers are dedicated longtimers like Grant, who have formed personal connections with the patrons. Four train cars are used for the ride, each with a Conductor character. People often request the same car each year so they can have the same Conductor, Frank said. Many take a photo each year with their favorite.

Grant can’t even begin to imagine how many thousands of photos there are with him in uniform posing with families over the years. He got a pretty good idea of his widespread fame when his son moved to Wausau and went over to the house of new friends he made there.

“And here I am, with their family, in full costume, sitting on their mantel,” he said.

“It’s not uncommon for people to know exactly who they want the photo with. It’s part of their Christmas tradition, and if they don’t see you, they will ask around until they find you.”

Passengers are all smiles after receiving bells on The Polar Express Train Ride at the National Railroad Museum. As those familiar with "The Polar Express" Christmas story know, the bell has special significance.
Passengers are all smiles after receiving bells on The Polar Express Train Ride at the National Railroad Museum. As those familiar with "The Polar Express" Christmas story know, the bell has special significance.

It takes dedicated volunteers, a lot of hot chocolate and 16,000 cookies

As the event has grown over the years, it has become a community effort. The whimsical Hot Chocolate Dance during the reading of the story once done with volunteers who were not dancers now features students with NEW Fusion Dance & Performing Arts in Howard. Monzu Bakery makes 16,000 cookies in four weeks to go with the hot chocolate served at the shows, and the museum works with Beerntsen’s Candies on other treats.

Volunteers with community theater experience have helped make the audio-visual elements more professional, and high school students pitch in to fill the acting roles on the train. Let’s not forget the commitment from Santa Claus.

“He always magically appears on the train at the very end,” Frank said. “If you believe in him, he’ll give you a bell that you can hear ring. Occasionally, adults though don’t receive bells they can hear, unfortunately.”

The inside portion of the program has changed little through the years, but the train ride has evolved extensively to bring in more parts of the movie. Every volunteer is encouraged to watch the film at least two or three times before rehearsals start. While there’s a general script the actors follow, some of the best moments come from improv.

Grant recalls a few years ago when an engine broke down and the train came to a standstill in the middle of the show. The conductors immediately thought of a scene in the movie when the Polar Express stops because there are caribou on the tracks. They took that idea and ran with it, encouraging all the passengers to scream to get the caribou to move until the train was back up and running. It was so popular, now they intentionally stop the train every year.

If you want to get kids giggling, just start plucking the hats off the heads of parents to see if the lost ticket in the story might be there, Grant said.

“It’s not just going to a movie and watching it. This is interaction. It’s tangible. They can feel it, they can see it and they can experience it,” Grant said. “The joy it brings to people is just — what’s the word I want to use? — it’s infectious.”

Families just learning of the event for the first time are often disappointed to find out tickets are sold out, despite the museum's best efforts to get the word out about the on-sale in July. People frequently ask if there’s a waiting list. There is not.

The 312 attendees for each performance is the maximum number of people who can fit comfortably in the Lenfestey Center, so bigger shows aren't an option. So how about more shows to meet the demand?

Many of the volunteers have full-time jobs, and museum employees have to adjust their normal daytime hours to work evenings during the run. It’s important that after giving of themselves for four weekends of performances they get some time with their own families during the holidays, Frank said.

As much as Grant looks forward to it every year, even he’s tuckered out by the final night (and ready to reclaim the natural color of his mustache). But if there’s a better way to get in the Christmas spirit, he’s not aware of it.

“It’s the smiles on everyone’s faces,” he said. “There’s a wave of joy that goes through people when they experience Christmas here and the joy and happiness it brings to them as they embark on a journey to the North Pole.”

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert. 

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: The magic behind Polar Express Train Ride at National Railroad Museum