re: Anyone do the tradition of an electric train under the Christmas tree?

Not at all. A couple wires and you are done.

Mine is complex because I am running an older Cab-1/command base within the Legacy system (so I can have variable voltage to run older non TMCC engines) as well as TPC controllers to get 200 steps of voltage. I also have amp meters and circuit breakers in line too (I am running 810 watts at 20A breakers--I can weld with the power it produces!!).

All of this will be unnecessary in about 3-4 months as Lionel is about to introduce a module that plugs into Legacy that will allow fine voltage steps to run older non TMCC trains.

Just get a Legacy set and the module for variable voltage and you should be good to go. It is actually pretty cool.