The return of a festive train hopes to put families into the Christmas mood as they get the chance to open presents and enjoy mince pies and mulled wine alongside Santa Claus.

The Santa Steam Express, which is in its second year, allows families to explore London in a magical way alongside Santa and his “merry helpers”, with children set to battle the cold winter air with a drink and festive treat given to them on arrival.

Juliet Soley, head of marketing at Steam Dreams Rail Company – which offers the experience, told the PA news agency: “We have Christmas music playing, it’s a lovely atmosphere on board. The adults, depending on which class they’re in, they get mulled wine, mince pies, sausage rolls, coffee and tea.

“We look after everyone and there’s presents for all the children.”

She added that the steam locomotive is the highlight for many passengers, with the majority posing for pictures alongside it to cherish the experience.

With the journey lasting around one hour and 45 minutes, there are plenty of activities on board for families to enjoy.

“We’ve got an activity sheet for the children to do, which has loads of different activities, spot the difference, join the dots to make a picture, Christmas jokes, a wordsearch,” Ms Soley added.

“All the kids get that, we’ve also got a little song sheet on all the tables so the elves go through, they’ve got little bells and we do singalongs so they’ve all got song sheets.”

The Santa Steam Express departed from London Victoria on December 19, offering three departure slots – 8:45am, 11:12am and 13:45pm.

It is also set to welcome aboard passengers again on December 21 at the same times.

Ms Soley added that the company took 792 passengers over the three trips on December 19, with the same number expected on December 21.

Bookings can be made here: https://www.steamdreams.co.uk/index.php?