Patrick Sanders invites Sarasota children to board the Polar Express

Patrick Sanders entered Barnes and Noble’s children’s section on Dec. 2 to the sound of gasps.

“It’s the conductor!” children exclaimed as Sanders made his way to a section surrounded by a semicircle of small benches.

With a flat-topped train conductor’s hat, thin, oval glasses perched halfway down his nose and a white mustache he grows out every Christmas for his role, Sanders looks just like he sounds.

In a gentle, smooth, Southern voice he tells a familiar story.

“All aboard the Polar Express!” he says.

Sanders has made narrating “The Polar Express” for young audiences a Christmas tradition.

He began performing the story in 2007 for his grandson’s class at Ashton Elementary School.

After doing a similar enactment of Johnny Appleseed earlier that year, his grandson’s teacher asked Sanders to put something together for Christmas. He said he chose “The Polar Express” because it was different. There were no talking snowmen or misfit reindeer. It was about real children struggling to believe.

He rewrote the story to fit a first-person narrative, and his wife sewed gold stripes on the cuffs of a black suit she found at Goodwill. They even found a French train conductor’s hat at a costume store to complete the ensemble.

Sanders now makes the rounds to several schools in the district, including his youngest grandson Tripp Hines’ class at Phillippi Elementary School, in addition to his annual performance at Barnes and Noble.

“It’s gotten to be the biggest part of my Christmas,” Sanders said.

Sanders starts his story by explaining that before he was the conductor of the Polar Express he was a kindergartner. His friend had told him that Santa Claus didn’t exist, so Sanders set out to prove them wrong. He stayed up all night on Christmas Eve aching to see Santa glide down his chimney. Instead of reindeer bells, Sanders tells his audience he heard train whistles.

He boards the Polar Express on its journey to the North Pole, where Santa chooses Sanders to receive the first Christmas gift.

Instead of toys or riches, Sanders tells the children he chose a bell from one of Santa’s reindeer, which made the sweetest sound he had ever heard. But it can only be heard by those who truly believe in Santa’s magic.

When he arrives home, Sanders said he realizes the bell fell out of his pocket. He thought it was gone forever. But on Christmas Day he received a package from Santa and sees his lost bell.

He tells his audience he has kept the bell for all these years. His friend can’t hear it ring anymore and neither can his little sister. But for Sanders, the bell still jingles because he still believes in the magic of Christmas.

“I try to get across it’s not about what they receive for Christmas that’s important,” Sanders said. “It’s the whole idea of the Christmas spirit.”

To Sanders, that is a spirit of inclusion.

“As I’m walking down the aisle to find my seat I say, ‘There are boys and girls everywhere — all different ages, all different sizes, all different colors,” Sanders said. “I think it kind of emphasizes that there shouldn’t be discrimination … Santa Claus doesn’t discriminate between where you’re from or what you look like, just if you’re good.”

It’s been nine years since his first performance, but for Sanders, the magic hasn’t faded. He still looks forward to the rapt looks and excited gasps. At 74, he knows his days as the conductor will end, but for now there is no closing curtain in sight.

How long is he going to continue his Christmas tradition?

“I guess as long as I can remember the story,” he said.