Putting a train under the Christmas tree was a time-honored tradition in the Kalmowitz household. When I was growing up, every year my family and I would spend hours setting up the train (sometimes two or three of them) under the tree, and I’d endlessly make them go back and forth. However, there was something I always wanted to do that I was never able to actually make happen: putting a Disney World Monorail under the tree.
One of my darker secrets is that I’ve always been a fan of Disney — not necessarily the movies or shows or anything like that, but the theme parks themselves. As a young kid, we’d go to Disney World just about every year, and my favorite part was almost always riding the monorail from the Ticket and Transportation Center to the parks. I then took nearly 15 years off between Disney trips, going again a couple of years ago with my partner. Once again, the monorail was one of the highlights of the trip. I mean, it’s just so freaking cool. Did you know it’s the heaviest-traveled monorail in the U.S. with over 150,000 riders a day, or that it’s the third busiest monorail system in the world? Bet you didn’t.
Anyway, when I was young my parents bought my brother, sister and I a scale monorail set, and every year I wanted to put it around the tree. Unfortunately, it just never really happened for one reason or another. I’ll be honest, I forgot about it ever happening.
Then, I walk into my childhood home for Christmas, and what do I see under the tree? A red monorail driving around in circles past models of Space Mountain and Cinderalla’s Castle and coasting through a model of the Contemporary Hotel. I’m a writer by trade, and I still cannot sum up how great this whole thing made me feel. It was like all of my childhood memories, hopes and dreams about Christmas came true in that exact moment… or something like that.
Even if you aren’t a Disney person, I implore you: find your monorail under the tree this holiday season. Find something that’s going to make you so happy you don’t even know what to do with yourself. It’s silly, but I promise it’s worth it.
