I remember years back, Chuck Valentine, a great friend to my Dad (and a true kid at heart) was excitedly ribbing me after Christmas Eve mass at Holy Name. Joking and laughing, he kept telling me to follow him to Andy and Rita’s house. I had no idea who he was talking about. I was probably about nineteen or twenty. Like most people that age, I was mad at the world. But something happened when I walked into the house of this gentle couple. The sight of a tiny world with little flashing lights took me back to that place and gave me that Christmas feeling I had when I was a little kid. I didn’t understand why, but I have come back to this house just about every year since on Christmas Eve.

Every Christmas season for more than twenty years, Andy Kroyos has carefully constructed this tiny world on a platform in the living room of his Fishtown home. The platform has grown over the years. It seems vast, but the truth is it probably only measures about twelve feet by five feet. By Andy’s count, there are 400 trees, 130 matchbox cars and trucks, and 400 miniature people. There is a skating rink, an amusement park ride, a hot air balloon, and trains, all surrounded by a snow-covered mountain range. Around the back of the platform, there is also a tribute to our troops, as Andy has a reenactment of the Battle of the Bulge set up with tiny soldiers.

There is so much to see in this tiny world. There are snowball fights, Mickey Mouse snowmen, Santa flying overhead with his reindeer. There is even a tiny Citizens Bank Park, a gift Andy’s daughter Jackie gave him this year for Christmas.

“My wife always said, don’t make it any bigger,” Andy reminisced. At this point, it doesn’t really seem like Andy could make his platform any bigger, but it’s full of life. Sadly, Andy lost his wife Rita recently. Andy and Rita Kroyos were happily married for 49 years, and he keeps her memory close to his heart. He laughed about how he knew he was allowed to start setting up the platform every year when his wife put the curtains in the windows of the living room.

While I was in his home snapping photos, Andy has a visitor – a woman named Sue who is a friend of his daughter. Sue comes every year to see the display. As with many Fishtown families, it is one of her Christmas traditions. I remarked that the platform was like a little world unto itself. Sue replied, “I know! I want to live in that world.” It struck me that she said that. I looked over the platform, the skating rink, the snowmen, the string of tiny lights where smiling little people were selling Christmas trees. It does seem like a perfect place to live. I suppose that is the magic of Andy’s platform. It’s a happy place to be, a safe and hopeful place. That’s why it fills people with that Christmas feeling they had when they were young.

I asked Andy what his favorite part of the platform was. “I like the little village best with the optic lights and the McDonald’s and Howard Johnson. I got them about twenty years ago.” I guess Andy is happy knowing the little people in his town are comfortable.

Andy started his pastime of a model train platform about sixty years ago on a card table. It was just a hobby at first, something a lot of people did. My Dad always kept a train platform under the tree. He still does. It’s a common tradition I suppose. Still, I have never seen a train platform in anyone’s home quite like this.

Andy’s train platform is a Fishtown Christmas treasure. This year, as in past years, he will open his home to friendly neighbors on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day.

I asked Andy why he goes to such great lengths to set all of this up every year. He said he does it for his grandchildren, but I believe that’s only partially true. Like Chuck Valentine, Andy is still a kid at heart. Even though he added the stadium to his platform this year, he said that he’s finally finished building his little world. We’ll see about that next year, Andy. Merry Christmas.