Right, as I have said before on this blog, I do LOVE Christmas and one thing I like to do, asides from listening to Christmas music, to get me feeling even more festive, is watching a good yuletide film.
For the last couple of years, my film of choice has been The Polar Express .
Have you seen it?
It is a beautiful family film about a young boy who is starting to doubt that Father Christmas actually exists, and even his sister and parents fear he is not believing in the magic of Christmas anymore. So when he is woken up Christmas Eve to find a steam train pulling up outside of his house to take him on an adventure to the North Pole to see the great man himself, he decides to jump aboard even though he is very sceptical.
By embarking on The Polar Express steam engine he is also starting his own journey of self discovery to find out for himself what the magic of Christmas really is and to discover what happens to those who do truly believe.
I really love this film and the meaning behind the story. Towards the end of the narration when Father Christmas says to the boy in the film
I think that line sums up the entire film for me. I feel that if I jangled that sleigh bell I would hear it jingle because of the way I feel about this time of year, I find it magical and very special and I still get as excited about it now as I did when I was a child when I believed in Father Christmas. I hope that my boys will share my love of Christmas too and won’t stop believing for a long time yet, especially as kids nowadays seem to grow up too fast.
Burton watched The Polar Express with me this morning for the first time and he really enjoyed it
So much so that he asked to watch it again in the afternoon!! I was really pleased that he enjoyed watching it with me and he got quite excited when Father Christmas appears and I had to rewind it a couple of times for him to watch him talking again!
Visually the film is a pleasure to watch; a real feast for the eyes and almost breath taking at times. The animation is amazing and so clever, and the characters so life like. For me, however, it is the story that makes this film for me and it is timeless one – one that has been told again and again in many guises and in many different stories and films, and one which will continue to enthral and entertain children (and adults in my case!). That if you believe in something enough, you can make anything possible.
To me, The Polar Express appeals to anyone, young or old, who loves Christmas; whether they still do believe, like Burton, or they just really want to even though they are in their 30’s now *ahem*!
If you haven’t seen The Polar Express before, then I would recommend you doing so.
Although The Polar Express was originally released in the cinemas back in 2004 (was it really that long ago? Yikes!), Warner Brothers have just re-released it on DVD in glorious 3D. The version I watched was in Blue Ray.
DAY 17 
Thank you xx
I have to watch this film, otherwise known as “Magic Train” at least 3 times a day. We first introduced Charles to it last Sunday and since then he’s been hooked.
He cried the first time he watched it as he can be a bit over-sensitive but remembered everything and told me the whole story (almost) the next day just as I was about to put it on.
xx
we LOVE Polar Express, we first watched it in the Cinema on Xmas Eve all those years ago and it was amazing on the big screen – we now get it out every year to watch & are hoping that Jack will like it too this year.
x
Love this film. Wish I could get the boys to watch this x