This historic City of Raleigh park transforms for this special event, adding more than 200,000 lights to its grounds, plus craft activities and more.
by Susanna Klingenberg | photography by Trey Thomas

When the air turns  crisp, Raleigh’s Pullen  Park begins a magical transformation: twinkle lights line its winding walkways, Santa and Mrs. Claus take up residence in the fir-decked Southern Railway Caboose and fire pits dot Lake Howell’s shorelines. The heart of Raleigh’s oldest park turns into a gleeful, gleaming celebration of the holiday season.

The Holiday Express has become a cherished outing for locals and visitors alike, inviting families to slow down and embrace an evening of magic. Now in its 15th year, the event began as a small celebration of the season and has evolved into an immersive, multinight extravaganza, thanks to the imagination of the Raleigh Parks and Recreation staff and the event’s overwhelming popularity. For 17 nights in December, the park embodies holiday wonder, a place where elves mix hot cocoa, kids dizzy themselves on slides and carousel rides and snowball fights reign, no matter the weather.

“I love that in a community as diverse as Raleigh, everybody can enjoy the Holiday Express,” says Lindsey Sosovec, a Holiday Express supervisor. “You don’t have to celebrate Christmas to feel the joy here!

Pullen Park, a year-round attraction known for its historic carousel and expansive playgrounds, was founded in 1887, making it the first public park in North Carolina. That storied setting gives the Holiday Express a timeless feel, even with tech-y additions like this year’s “Elf-in-Training Mission,” in which visitors use GPS to scout the park for presents reported to have fallen out of Santa’s sleigh.

Classic activities remain some of the most popular, though: roasting marshmallows for s’mores with the Raleigh Fire Department, snipping paper snowflakes at the craft table and chatting with the Clauses in the park’s historic red caboose. 

“The Holiday Express is a beloved tradition,” says outgoing Raleigh mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. “Kids of all ages and their parents and grandparents gather for fun. There’s nothing like the train at Pullen Park, taking you to fantasy land!”

As you step into the park, the aroma of woodsmoke wafts through the air and gleeful shouts of “Santa!” and “the Grinch!” cut through the jazzy holiday tunes piped around the park. Children bundled in colorful winter gear realize this is a departure from the day-to-day, even a time to break the rules a little — bedtimes are forgotten and sweets are abundant. “I get to throw snowballs at my brother!” said Henry Dolan, age 8, as he was winding up to lob a huge ball of cotton in the “snowball” fight arena last year.

One of the most memorable pieces of the Holiday Express are the abundant lights. “Are there 15,000 lights?” guessed James Wit, age 9. “630?” ventured his sister Emily, age 7. Chimed in their little brother Henry, age 4: “Definitely more than 10. Probably 11.”

In fact, there are over 270,000 lights: every bush and tree in the main park gets trimmed with classic white lights. There are also more than 250 color LED light displays scattered through the park, in the form of everything from reindeer and elves to a Halloween display and a Fourth of July tunnel. The best way to see those lights is to ride the eponymous Holiday Express, the park’s historic C.P. Huntington miniature train, which takes visitors on a 6 ½-minute trip through the displays. The park’s most senior conductors get nighttime-specific training for the event, where they learn to navigate the tracks by the glow of holiday lights, ensuring visitors enjoy a safe and smooth ride.

Securing tickets for the Holiday Express is not for the faint of heart, as many local families can attest. Released in October through Raleigh’s RecLink, the tickets are just $17 each, but they might as well be gold: with limited numbers and tremendous demand, tickets are a hot commodity. A randomized online ticketing process means that even those who join the virtual queue in its opening moments aren’t necessarily rewarded with a coveted spot.

“We wish we could accommodate everyone who wants a ticket! But the train is the limiting factor,” says Holiday Express coordinator Deanna Ludwick. “Plus, the intimate feel is part of the fun.”

Ticket sales for the event fund Pullen Park improvements, and they have skyrocketed from 3,279 tickets sold in its first year to 32,000 in 2024. Preparing for such a huge crowd to visit always takes a detail oriented staff and grounds crew, plus a team of nearly 500 volunteers. Volunteers help decorate the park, wrapping trees and setting up light displays in the months approaching the Holiday Express. When the crowds arrive in December, they help visitors get oriented, chat with people waiting in line, transcribe kids’ letters to Santa and run supplies to the various stations around the park. “The volunteers always have a ton of fun,” says Sosovec.

But the fun really begins nearly a year ahead of time, when Sosovec and Ludwick start compiling a vision board of what they’d like to bring to life in the park. “Sometimes we put impossible ideas on there!” says Sosovec. “But usually, we‘re able to make those impossible things possible, thanks to a lot of help from the community.” Some ideas become yearly staples, like the GPS-guided missions around the park; others, like the presents that spiraled to the ceiling in Santa’s mailroom, shine for just a year and will be replaced next December. Local civic groups, churches and students from nearby North Carolina State University pitch in to start the transformation in October, though tradition dictates that volunteers can’t don their official Holiday Express uniforms (jaunty elf hats) until Nov. 1.

But after that, says Sososvec, “It’s similar to running Santa’s workshop: lots of details, tons of coordination, but a really good time, too.” When the first Holiday Express train pulls out of the station, “the energy shifts,” says Ludwick. Staff and volunteers stop attending to details and focus on being present in the moment. “It’s so much fun to catch their spirit!” says Sosovec.

As night falls on the Holiday Express, Pullen Park transforms again into a scene straight out of a storybook. Lights shimmer their reflections in the lake, people huddle around fires that blaze in the dark and the air quiets even as the clamor of delighted families carries on. For many locals, a night at Pullen Park during the holidays has become a cherished tradition, a moment to reconnect and celebrate the joy of the season together, all within a magical space in the state’s capital.   

This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of WALTER magazine