The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is building a model railway and train stations to spirit travelers on an Enchanted Journey during the festive season.

As a complement to the Enchanted Journey, the hotel is also building replicas of the Metropole and the Opera Wings of the property in gingerbread. It will forego a Christmas log house for a life-sized train car that can be coupled to a Polar Express. And it will show movies outdoors in the hotel garden throughout the season.

There will be a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on December 6, musical performances by renowned Vietnamese singer Tung Duong and jazz diva Micki Murphy, and a chorus of Metropole staff singing carols in five languages, including French and Vietnamese.

“We’ve been celebrating Christmas here for 118 years”, said General Manager William Haandrikman, “but even the spirit of Christmases past will be astonished by this year’s production.”

In each wing of the hotel, trains will chug along tracks that wind through two separate Christmas villages. In between the wings of the hotel, several stations will celebrate modes of transportation common to Hanoi’s past, including cyclos, bicycles, aircraft, and, of course motorcycles.

Christmas trees will set off each of the five stops on the Enchanted Journey, adding to the magnificent 15-meter-tall tree on Le Balcon and the many thousands of lights that will decorate the entire exterior of the hotel.

In addition to all of the festive season visuals, the hotel is firing up its kitchens for a series of special dinners on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve across of the hotel’s restaurants and bars, from the timeless Le Beaulieu to Spices Garden, Le Club Bar, La Veranda, and the remarkable new angelina.