COLUMBUS—Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) is celebrating the holiday season with the Huntington Holiday Train (on display through Jan. 18) and a restoration of the Talking Tree from the former Lazarus department store downtown (on display through Jan. 8). Both attractions are on display at Main Library, 96 S. Grant Ave.
Click here to download B-roll footage of the Huntington Holiday Train.
About the Huntington Holiday Train
The impressive 600-square-foot Huntington Holiday Train (see photo) includes multiple miniature trains running on more than 280 feet of track surrounded by more than 50 pounds of snowflakes. The miniature buildings – which are all made from leaves, bark, seeds, pinecones, fungus and moss – are modeled after actual structures in Germany.
This marks the 32nd year of the holiday attraction, which was built in 1992 by Applied Imagination founder Paul Busse. The train was originally displayed in the lobby of the historic Huntington building at Broad and High streets. In 2009, Huntington graciously loaned the train to CML. This year will be its 14th on display in Main Library’s atrium. (There was no train display in 2015 due to Main Library’s renovation, nor in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Highlights include a 6-foot-tall cathedral, an 8-foot-tall castle and a waterfall that pumps 600 gallons of water an hour. Each building in the display took between one and three weeks to create. The castle and waterfall took more than three months to complete; it took more than 10 months to build the cathedral. The entire display takes two days to install.
About the Talking Tree
In 1973, Lazarus introduced the Talking Tree, which entertained children and became an iconic piece of Columbus history. Children would enter the space while the tree was “sleeping” and would sing the “wake-up” song to bring the tree to life. It would then chat with children and sing songs. Similar trees were stationed at Northland, Westland and Eastland malls in addition to the flagship store downtown. They were retired from service in all stores by the early 1990s. The display at Main Library is a restoration of the original, created by Columbus VFX artist Todd Reed.
Both holiday attractions are on display during regular library hours – Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. The first hour of parking in the library garage is free.
