Families do not have to go far to take a trip to the North Pole this holiday season.

Children and their parents will be able to create a train car and listen to a reading of “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg – while wearing sleepwear – at 10:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. Monday in the Craft and Rotary rooms of the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.

The pajama party starts in the Craft Room, where each child and his or her guardian will use construction paper, tape and other provided materials to make a train car out of a life-size cardboard box.

Julie Viertel, library associate of youth services, said she formulated this activity through the public’s demand for a craft similar to the one the library put on earlier in the year.

Over the summer, the library hosted an event where families made race cars out of cardboard boxes, an activity Viertel said originated from Pinterest.

Since then, Viertel said multiple community members have asked her when she was going to have another activity like it.

“When I started planning for the Christmas activity, (I thought) ‘how exciting would that be for them to make a train car,’” Viertel said.

Viertel said she fashioned the activity to appeal not only to her audience who did the craft during the summer but also to appeal to the people who attended last year’s craft and storytelling of “The Polar Express.”

“I don’t want it to be the exact same every single year,” Viertel said. “I want kids who came last year to say, ‘oh this is different, let’s come this year too.’”

Viertel said last year she read the book in the Rotary rooms first and had four different crafts related to “The Polar Express” instead of making train cars and reading the story afterward, as they are doing this year.

Viertel said this year’s activity emphasizes collaboration between the children and their parents.

“It’s not going to be something where (parents) come in, sit down and let the kids do it. A lot of the time it’s working together,” Viertel said.

After about 30 minutes of craft making, Viertel said the children will push their decorated train cars from the Craft Room to the “North Pole,” in Rotary Rooms A and B located at the front of the library.

After the “expedition” is complete, Viertel said she will read “The Polar Express” in the front room, taking brief moments to interact and show each illustration to her audience.

Viertel said a treat that relates to the book will also be provided after the storytelling portion is over.

The library will also host a “Winter Classic” on Saturday, Jan. 16, where anybody will have the opportunity to build a golf course. Then they can golf at their own and other people’s creations.

Molly Dotson can be reached at 581-2812 or madotson@eiu.edu.