Santa Train Makes Annual Excursion Through Appalachia

ST. PAUL, Va. – When the whistle blew and the Santa Train rounded the bend for its annual stop here Saturday, about 1,000 people cheered as the bearded one waving from the caboose ushered in a heavy dose of Christmas spirit.

The 66-year tradition of trekking through Appalachia to distribute clothing, toys, Teddy Bears, and other goodies, continued this season with country music star Kathy Mattea helping Santa and a host of helpers do the tossing.

Before the train arrived, the Kelley Nelson Band warmed up a rapidly growing crowd with some bluegrass music.

“Woo, woo, Santa Train. Woo, woo, Santa Train,” they sang, as hundreds of people voiced the lyrics of the Patti Lovelace song written about the annual event.

One full hour before the train arrived, about 200 people – most with children – began to hover beside the tracks. About a half-hour before the scheduled 11 a.m. stop, more than 500 people had gathered, and hundreds more were popping out from behind buildings or trying to find parking spaces.

When the blue and yellow CSX train blew its whistle, mothers and fathers grabbed their smallest children and placed them on their shoulders. The parents knew what to do. Most had been there at the stop each year for decades.

As soon as the train stopped and the gifts began to fly, children shouted, “Santa! Over here, Santa!”

And that was just the children.

“Over here Santy – c’mon, over this way,” Scott Harris, a 40-year-old St. Paul resident said while his 5-year-old son Tanner sat on his shoulders waving.

It appears the menfolk – especially the taller ones – have learned through the years to push toward the back of the train to be in a better strategic position to clutch the most appealing prizes.

That is not to say they horde the gifts from their children; they don’t. Think of it as a distribution system.

Santa also deserves a little credit here. Toward the end of the gift-giving, when supplies were running out, he intentionally pointed at certain kids and attempted to throw the gifts into their hands.

It’s fair to say he has a pretty good fastball, too. Just ask the hundred or so grown men who were beaned in the forehead by small cereal boxes.

After the clutching crowd was bombarded with gifts for a solid 15 to 20 minutes, the engineer blew the whistle and, as if on cue, both children and adults starting saying “Bye Santa. Bye. Come back Santa!”

When the train pulled away, so did the massive crowd, leaving behind pounds of crushed candy, and a thousand memories.

“We’ve been coming here for 17 straight years,” Scott Harris said about his family while asking his son Tanner and daughter Autumn, 11, what they’d gotten.

Autumn proudly displayed a puppet of one of the Three Wise Men as well as a sack full of snacks, hats and other keepsakes.

Harris’ wife, Kimberly, 37, used to live in St. Paul and said she’s made a pilgrimage to the site each of those 37 years.

“My dad had a business – Phillips Auto Parts – just across the tracks,” she said. “What I remember most is the colored notebooks they used to throw out. I would take them, color on them and make illustrations for my dad. I still love it. It gets me in the mood for Christmas.

The member of the family who appeared to be the giddiest after the train headed down the line was Della Gill, Scott Harris’ 60-year-old mother from Ballard, W.Va.

“I got to meet her – I got to meet Kathy Mattea,” she said as she grabbed up Autumn and hugged her. “She said, ‘It’s so nice to meet you.’ That’s all I ever wanted. My heart’s still racing. That just made my day. I’ve wanted to meet her for years.”

Mattea’s recent album, Coal, is a reflection of her family roots in the coal country of West Virginia. Both of her grandfathers were coal miners.

Recorded as a tribute to “my place and my people,” the album features her take on classic mining songs from Hazel Dickens, Jean Ritchie, Merle Travis and others while exploring the tragedy that often comes from life in the mines.

Mattea also pays her respects to the strength and humility that provide a bedrock foundation to the community.

Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss, Naomi Judd, Travis Tritt and Rebecca Lynn Howard have been among the Santa Train’s on-board celebrity guests. Several governors, U.S. senators and representatives, and other local, state and federal officials also have participated.

Many folks on hand Saturday could testify that they and their parents and grandparents had met the Santa Train at that particular stop in previous years. Eddie Collins, 23, of Norton, said the event made him pause and think of his father, who is no longer living.

“I’ve been coming here every year since I was 5 years old,” he said while holding his 19-month-old daughter Kayla Cheyenne Church, who was making her first visit. “My dad took me my first time. He used to hold my hand and walk me here. He’d pick me up on his shoulders and we’d talk about it all the way back home.”

A little farther down the tracks, Karen Colemen, 37, of Grundy, stood reflecting on Santa’s visit with her 16-year-old daughter Tara Coleman.

“My sister, Shiloh Whiteoak, lives in ... Australia, but she calls me every year to see what I got,” Karen Coleman said. “We used to go together when they used to just throw things from the train – they didn’t stop.”

Coleman’s daughter, Tara, said she’s been coming to the train stop for the event each of the 16 years she’s been alive.

“It really gets people in the Christmas spirit,” she said. “With all the stuff that’s going on in the world right now, we need this. It brings families together.”

The Santa Train has been doing that since 1943.

The annual journey is co-sponsored by CSX Transportation, Food City and the Kingsport Tennessee Area Chamber of Commerce.

Running a 110-mile route through Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee, the Santa Train makes 14 scheduled stops to deliver 15 tons of gifts, candy and toys. This year’s turnout of about 1,000 at the St. Paul stop was the most ever, and the highest attended stop this year except for the last – Kingsport, city officials said.

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