Pip: Welcome back to Pollywog’s Place — where the holidays are not a season so much as a full-contact sport with fudge.
Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog has been writing about the traditions that anchor her family’s December — a long-running Polar Express party and the Advent games and crafts that lead up to it. Let’s start with the party itself.
Polar Express Parties: Many Years of the Annual Tradition
Pip: The Polar Express party is not a casual gathering — it’s a whole production, with a menu, a movie, a light show, games, party favors, and homemade gifts, assembled year after year for friends and family.
Mara: The 2024 recap puts it plainly: “these are the memories that we live to create… memories that everyone can look back on and remember from their childhood.”
Pip: And the cost of those memories, apparently, is a migraine and two days in bed with a fibro flare — which the post also notes was completely worth it.
Mara: The 2025 post shows the tradition evolving. Fewer decorations, a potluck cookie approach, and a Northern Lights projector that was called, simply, “AMAZING.” The food spread ran from a Candy Cane Meat and Cheese Platter to Sweet and Sour Meatballs, almost all prepped ahead of time.
Pip: There’s real planning intelligence in that — prep ahead, use remotes for the lighting, write dish names on brown paper for cleanup. It’s less chaos, more choreography.
Mara: The planning post, Special Holiday Meals: Polar Express Party, pulls together years of posts into one reference, going all the way back to 2016. Polar Express 2022 is also part of that archive, showing just how long this tradition has been running.
Mara: The through-line across both years is the same: do what you can with what you have, and the people in the room are what make it.
Pip: Which is also a pretty good philosophy for the weeks leading up to the party — and that’s where the Advent prep comes in.
Advent Games and Crafts: DIY Fun Before the Big Night
Mara: The Advent segment is about keeping kids engaged through December — with low-cost, printable, and mostly homemade activities that build toward the party.
Pip: The BINGO post sets the tone: “this is just for fun and you can feel free to use this as you like! We just wanted to share it so others might be able to bring some easy fun into their homes.”
Mara: The cards themselves are designed so kids cut out pictures and arrange them in their own order — so no two cards are identical. Markers can be gold coin cutouts, torn construction paper, or candy.
Pip: The DIY Advent Games post goes further, offering a full downloadable packet of Christmas games — word games, Tic-Tac-Toe, and outdoor options like Cornhole — usable with or without printing, which is a practical detail worth noting.
Mara: Both posts treat the activity as the point, not the polish. Luminaries from baby food jars, bird feeders from pine cones and peanut butter — the craft list is long and the supply list is short.
Pip: What holds all of this together is the same idea in every post — the event doesn’t have to be expensive to be worth remembering.
Mara: Next time, we’ll see what else is taking shape at Pollywog’s Place as the new year gets underway.
