So I ve made up for the lack by buying several since. My bigger Lionel has been passed on to our eldest daughter. Some cheaper and more plastic models have been gifts to children of friends-given in full knowledge the parents would play with them as much their children would. But I keep my tiny train on my desk year-round. They say Christmas is for kids but that s only partly true.
Kids enjoy it fleetingly.
They are too young to savor it. What kids need to get most from Christmas is a memory bank which accumulates interest and from which they can withdraw treasures in old age. So Christmas is really for all ages of people. Some of my best Christmas memories are of wartime Christmases, and railroads are connected with most of them. Dad was working double shifts for the railroad during the war.