Model train sets evoke Christmas nostalgia
- news655
- Dec 23, 2025
- 6 min read
By DAVID PANIAN
TECUMSEH — Not much goes more hand-in-woolen-mitten than nostalgia and Christmas.
For many families, part of that nostalgia is setting up a model train set under the Christmas tree.
The tradition of setting up a train set under the tree dates back to the early 1900s when model trains became popular, and it remains a part of many families’ holidays today.
J-Bar Hobbies in downtown Tecumseh has its own train set that it sets up for Christmastime in one of its front display windows. Longtime customers come in year after year to add to their sets, but there are new customers, too, said Caris Bindus of J-Bar.
“This year, we’ve had quite a few families come in who are starting that tradition,” she said. “A lot of them are with younger kids. I’d say probably they normally start around 5 (years old). That’s been the median age that I’ve heard, ‘We’ve got a 5-year-old at home. We want to start putting a train around the tree.’”
For families who are starting the tradition, the model train manufacturers make it easy with a variety of starter sets.
“A lot of the sets now are so nice,” Bindus said. “They come with everything you need for an under-the-tree display. They come with all the track, the transformer, the engine, the cars, and that’s the best way and the most economical way to start is with a set.”
Some of the sets are the traditional freight trains, but others have themes.
“We have a ‘Frozen’ one that’s themed after the movie ‘Frozen,’ so it’s all Elsa and Anna themed, and then we’ve got obviously, the Polar Express, which is very popular,” Bindus said.
There are some that reflect brand names, like John Deere, and some have a military theme, like the Army and Marine Corps.
“And then just classic Christmas ones with the red and green and white that aren’t really themed after anything except Christmas,” Bindus said.
The prices for the sets start at about $350, Bindus said, with the ones featuring trademarked brands tending to cost more.
Train sets have long included visual and sound effects, including lights, whistles and horns, and “smoke” from the locomotive. Today’s sets can play music, and the drops used to create the smoke can be scented like peppermint or cotton candy, Bindus said.
Some considerations for an under-the-tree display are space and pets, Bindus said. Families should figure out how much room they’ll have around the tree, and pets sometimes can get in the way of the moving train, or fur from pets that shed a lot might impede the train’s operation.
The size of the train set itself is another consideration. Sets come in four main scales, from the largest, G, to O, HO and the smallest, N. J-Bar does not carry G-scale trains, which Bindus said are the most expensive and most difficult to repair. N is probably not appropriate for a display around a typical Christmas tree.
“That’s going to be very, very tiny, and it would look kind of silly around a Christmas tree,” Bindus said. “It’s like, maybe an inch or two tall. So it’d be very small.”
While HO-scale might seem most Christmas-y, given Santa Claus’ famous “Ho ho ho!” laugh, Bindus said it, too, might be a tad small around a tree.
“If you have a small space, HO might be better,” she said.
The store’s train display is O-scale.
“The most common scale that I see for around the tree is O-scale, which is what we have out here,” Bindus said. “…It’s pretty proportional to the tree itself.”
G-scale trains are about 1/22 the size of a real train, while N is about 1/160 the size of a real train. O is 1/48, and HO is 1/87.
Bindus said some of their customers have sets that have been handed down from generation to generation.
“A lot of times, these train sets last for a long time,” she said, particularly those from Lionel and American Flyer. “So we have some families who come in and they have a working train set from the ’50s or ’60s that they still use under their tree. And although we don’t have the track for those items anymore, a lot of things are still compatible with them that they sell today. So they’ll buy cars, and they just come in for the nostalgia too. … We have a lot of people who come in and talk about, ‘I have my great-grandpa’s train set, or I have my grandma’s train set,’ and they show pictures, and it’s really cool to see such an old item, and their kids are around it. I mean, it’s really cool.”
But why do trains, Christmas and Christmas trees go together?
“I think it’s a nostalgia thing,” Bindus said. “I think that, you know, my grandfather always talked about his train set, that he had a purple train set. I don’t know if it was a Christmas train set, but I know it was purple, and he always talked about that when I was growing up. And we’ve always had a train under our tree since I was really, really little. I think it’s just a fun thing. It’s a moving part of the Christmas tree. I think they just kind of go hand-in-hand.”
For certain generations in the United States, holidays are connected to train travel. Before interstate highways and air travel became common, the only way to travel great distances in a relatively quick manner was by train. People were most likely to travel at the holidays to visit relatives, and they did so by train, according to a video on Christmas and model trains by History in the Dark on YouTube.
Push-toy trains gained popularity in the late 1800s, according to Paul D. Race’s article “What Do Trains Have To Do With Christmas?” at familychristmasonline.com, originally written for familygardentrains.com and bigchristmastrains.com. In 1901, model train-maker Lionel introduced its first electric trains.
Those early electric models were popular toys, albeit a major purchase for which a family would need to budget. If a family was going to buy an expensive toy, like with today’s video game systems, it often would be their big Christmas gift.
“Of course, once the mysterious huge box was opened, it was only logical to route the train around the now-naked-looking Christmas tree,” Race wrote. “So between Christmas and the day the tree came down, the train would run almost constantly, with almost everyone in the family taking a turn at operating it. Next year, of course, the train would come out before the presents appeared, and run a week or two before Christmas. And any cars or accessories in the new pile of presents were added to the temporary ‘railroad’ as well.”
History in the Dark proposed another reason why model trains and Christmas trees go together: The circular nature of the train set fits well around the circular shape of the tree. And because the tree is usually set up in an out-of-the-way part of a room, it gives a place where parents can let the kids set up the train where it won’t be underfoot.
Over time, model trains and the even older tradition of a model Christmas village merged for some families. In 1976, the Department 56 company started selling ceramic houses and other accessories in a size that fit most O-scale train sets, Race wrote.
“The nostalgic value of some of the products, coupled with the appeal of creating one’s own little community was powerful,” Race wrote. “A host of other manufacturers brought out their own lines, and a new hobby was born.”
Bindus said some of their customers have turned their holiday traditions into a fulltime hobby. J-Bar caters to those hobbyists with all sorts of track sections and model buildings, people and vegetation that can be added to a set.
J-Bar’s display set features a Christmas carnival theme, complete with moving rides and other features. It won’t be on display for much longer, though. Bindus said they’ll take it down during the week of Jan. 5 to put it away until next Christmas season.