The Polar Express Classroom Theme Party: A Magical Bell Student Gift Idea and Free Polar Express Tickets

Every year, my class watches The Polar Express movie on the last day before break while the teacher gets cleaned up from Christmas, organizes lessons and materials for January and all of that good stuff. We have a PJ day and the students bring a small blanket and pillow to flop out on. 

Sometimes, we go all out and have a Polar Express theme party complete with a hot cocoa bar, golden tickets, reindeer treats, crafts, sound track music and tons of fun! If you have a Polar Express Day or theme party like I usually do, you might like this easy and very special student gift idea! It's a nice keepsake of their year with you too.

I found these beautiful bell ornaments at Pier 1 for $1.00 each. 

It's a small price to pay for a really nice quality bell! 

They come with a pretty ribbon already attached. I like my class to look back at their ornament years from now and remember who gave it to them, so I always add a gift tag with my name and the year on it. 

In the past, I purchased a tub full of smaller bells and used golden metallic scrapbook paper with a different tag, but I could not locate a digital file or my master to share with you! I'm so disappointed about that and sure hope it turns up somewhere! I was out of time to try to recreate one, so this year I just went with a simple tag on festive red cardstock. It says ALWAYS BELIEVE!

This is my sample from 2012. I added a burgundy velvet ribbon and it looked very much like Santa's first gift of Christmas! My name is on the back of the tag.

I did locate my colored version of the party tickets that I hole-punched as the students entered the room and some golden gift tags to share!

 You can download them here.

If you think you might like this idea to file away for next year, or to even to give to some special BELIEVERS in your family, you can still get the bells at Pier 1. I am watching for them to go on clearance and then I will pick up a class set for next year! 

I plan to bring you more flashbacks from weeks past during my time off, so I hope to see you back again over the break.

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas! 

Enjoy the time with your family and some well-deserved lazy days!

:)