Have Thomas chugging around your tree.

• Position: WHAT'S NEW? Holiday Gift Guide - Christmas tree, gift - Brief article

There may be no other gift more fun to find under the Christmas tree than a brand new electric train set. As a kid, I never owned one. That circumstance certainly changed when I had children of my own, however--at least at Christmastime. Nothing fancy mind you: just a small, simple oval or figure eight with a few cars attached to the locomotive and trailed by the caboose ... and only run by batteries with no remote. This year, though, with the kids getting a bit older, we decided to upgrade with a pair of electric sets from Bachmann Trains, the 176-year-old company that offers a lifetime guarantee on all of its products.

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Since our brood ranges in age from kindergarten to junior high to high school, we opted for The Thomas Holiday Special ($145) to entertain the little guy and the Night Before Christmas ($390) for the older ones. Thomas the Tank Engine, of course, was a favorite for our crew when they were small. We still have a bevy of episodes on VHS tapes (and even the VCR to play them on for our...