If your December plans could use a dash of hot chocolate and hindsight-belonging-in-a-film magic, London has you covered: an immersive Polar Express experience is arriving in the capital for the Christmas season, giving families a chance to step inside the beloved festive story without leaving the city.

For anyone who missed the memo, The Polar Express is the 2004 animated film in which a boy boards a mysterious steam train on Christmas Eve and rides to the North Pole. The live 'train ride' experiences it inspired have become a seasonal fixture across the UK and beyond — usually a mix of costumed actors, storytelling, songs from the film, golden tickets, and a cocoa or two, all staged aboard or around vintage rolling stock.

Details of the London edition are light right now — the full listing is behind a robot check — but based on how these events typically run, expect actors in dressing gowns and conductors' uniforms, a narrative journey that loosely follows the film, and plenty of audience participation aimed squarely at children aged around 4 to 10. Sessions usually last between an hour and ninety minutes, with timed slots through late November and December, including evening departures for maximum atmosphere.

The big draw is convenience. The most famous UK Polar Express ride runs at Telford Steam Railway in Shropshire, and other versions have popped up at heritage lines around the country — lovely, but a haul from the capital. A London-based experience means families can pair it with a Christmas-market stroll, Winter Wonderland, or the lights on Regent Street and make a proper festive day of it without a long train connection.

Tickets for events of this kind tend to sell out fast, particularly weekend daytime slots, so if a Polar Express evening sounds like your family's idea of a perfect pre-Christmas treat, it's worth booking as soon as dates and prices go live. Standard advice for past editions: dress warmly, arrive early, and accept that you will end up humming 'Hot, Hot, Hot' on the way home.

For travellers visiting London in December with children in tow, this slots neatly into the city's Christmas calendar alongside the Southbank Centre's winter market and the huge Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. For locals, it's an easier alternative to dragging the kids to a heritage railway three hours away.

Story via Secret London.