Twinkling lights and hot cocoa welcomed families to the Second Presbyterian Church in Newark to celebrate the church’s Polar Express Experience.
This annual tradition, held this year on Dec. 12 and 13, included a live reenactment of the film Polar Express throughout the rooms and halls of the church, which had been transformed into a winter wonderland.
After the tour of the Polar Express Experience, participants received movie tickets to watch the Polar Express film across the street at the Midland Theatre.
The selection process to attend this magical experience is randomized. Schools pull names from a hat, and a limited number of tickets were distributed to elementary schools across Licking County. Children who won a ticket could bring their entire families.
“We wanted to provide for kids in Licking County that might not be able to experience it,” said the Rev. Lanie Sipes, pastor at Second Presbyterian.
She helps plan the event and attends the experience, welcoming and guiding families through the rooms. Sipes said that many of the children who go to the experience might otherwise not have access to something like this, so hosting an event like this is especially meaningful to the church.
The experience is beautiful to view and is also interactive. With multiple photo opportunities with different characters from the film, large cutouts, and cookies and drinks along the way, the decorations are visually pleasing.
Each room of the church is transformed into a festive holiday scene with hand-painted backdrops and hundreds of paper snowflakes dangling from the ceilings – and dozens of Christmas trees all around the rooms. The entire experience is on train tracks covering the floors of the church and winding through rooms and hallways.
“There are creative people in our congregation and they care about the community and the children,” Sipes said.
Joan Mckay and Dan Mckay are the masterminds behind this experience. With the help of Sipes, 100 volunteers – and with months of planning and donations from local businesses, community members and other churches – this experience is made possible.
The Mental Health America youth group brought in dozens of Christmas trees for the forest room.
“This takes months of planning,” Joan Mckay said.
The church makes a serious effort to make things look as magical as possible. This experience has been annual for several years, and the only time it was cancelled was in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of people attend the Polar Express Experience during the two days, with flexible hours allowing for as many families to attend as possible.
Every detail pops out. Many materials were sourced from Sears when the store at Indian Mound Mall closed. Old hangers from the department store help make the train. The train tracks are made out of old non-slip floors from Sears.
This experience throughout the years turned into a community project with local volunteers and increasingly elaborate decorations creating massive transformations to the church.
“Seeing the talent and vision is so cool,” Sipes said. “I love watching them walk in and seeing the joys on the kids’ faces.”
At the end of the tour, the children were brought into a beautiful room where Santa was seated for photos with kids. Volunteers were dressed up and eager to create an unforgettable experience for the young kids.
“It is always so much fun to see the kids’ amazed and excited faces,” Sipes said. “This is a gift to our community, but seeing the joy it brings to so many people is also a gift to us!”
Talya Dersu writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.