Santa Train

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Santa train is a wagon run by the Government of the United States of America in the month of December on the occasion of Christmas. This was started in the 1943. It was launched in Dickenson County and the name of this train was "Santa Special". This train follows a special route, wherein at every stop Santa throws out goodies, candies and gifts for the people standing at the station.

This train is a very huge success in the United States and the people wait for the Christmas season to ride in this. This is a train which has a lot of goodwill in places like Southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Kingsport.

This train begins its journey on a Saturday before thanksgiving at 7.30 am from Shelby, Kentucky and its last stop is at Kingsport. After this train is seen at its respective stations, it goes off to the annual Kingsport Christmas parade. It is loved by the spectators and the kids are also given rides on this Santa special train.

The train stops at Dante, Fremont, Elkhorn, St. Paul, Waycross, Dungannon and Kingsport. But that's not all that it has in store for the people of United States, it may stop anywhere on the route where there are many people just trying to get their eye on this beautiful wagon. And they also love to see the Old Saint nick which rides in the last wagon and waves out at people.

This train came into existence at the time of war. The war was of the coal workers and the company. This was the time when all the workers were on a strike as they were paid very low wages; the wages were in scripts and not currency. This allowed them to buy the goods only from the company stores as they were the ones who accepted scripts offered by the workers. All this got a lot of agitation in them and thus went on a strike. As the workers went on a strike, they had no money to buy gifts for their family and children. The Santa train served as a boon to them as this train would give a lot of goodies, chocolates and gifts at every stop. This was just the beginning of fun, as the economic conditions of United States got better, the gifts and presents were better and much more in quantity. Now these presents were not just for the laborers but for every kid and a family who wanted gifts for Christmas.

This train became very famous and favorite of many. There is also a famous song sung by Patty Loveless called "the Santa Train". It describes how this train has changed the lives of people and even a glimpse of this train can bring smile on to the face of an individual. It was easy for her to write this song because she grew up in Kentucky and saw the Santa special whistle in the cold mornings of December. She was very excited to see that people loved the song she sang while they sat in the train and enjoyed themselves.

The times are still the same today. Kids, parents and grandparents love to see this special Santa train and enjoy a ride in this. This is the time which can be enjoyed a family and allows their kids to see around the places it travels. It has become like a tradition in most of the families; that when Christmas arrives one to go for rides in this train with family. If one does not get the tickets to this train, they stay on the rail tracks and with cameras in hands and singing Christmas carols. There are many people dressed as Santa who entertain the kids and cheer 'Ho Ho Ho'! which are the famous lines of Santa Claus.