Get your toolbox ready!

Let your imagination go wild and build Santa a new sleigh!

Oh no! Santa’s sleigh is broken, and Christmas day is only a few days away! Can you help his elves build Santa a new sleigh?

We all know how Santa’s sleigh looks right? It has quite an iconic shape and its easily recognizable with its bright red and gold colours, its massive gift sack at the back, and the reindeers hard at work pulling the sleigh.

But what if Santa could have a different sleigh? Can you design and make a better version of Santa’s sleigh?

Adapting the activity according to age:

• If you have toddlers, you can build the sleigh using blocks.
• If you have young kids, you can build it using recycling materials.
• If you have older kids and have engineering building sets handy such as K’nex, Lego or Meccano, you can use those kits to build the sleigh. And use recycling material for things you can make using the kit.
• If you’re not into physically building a sleigh, you can do it virtually on Minecraft!
• Another great resource to use if you want to design and build your sleigh virtually is Tinkercad. Ever heard of Autodesk? They’re the design company that developed AutoCAD software tools used so often by engineers. The company also designed Tinkercad, which uses the same design principles but is modified to be used by kids and anyone who is interested in learning how to design 3d structures. The Tinkercad software tools are free to use so just create an account and follow step by step projects to learn how to use the tool!

We decided to build our sleigh using recycling material which we found at home.

Get your tools and materials ready!

• Cardboard for the structure of the sleigh
• Recycling materials such as bottles, cups, egg cartons, packaging boxes, cans, bottle caps,etc…
• Coloured Paper (or normal paper & colouring pencils)
• Christmas decorations to decorate the sleigh
• Any craft material you have lying around the house such as popsicle sticks, pompoms, cups, beads, and anything else which you can use to decorate the sleigh
• Paint & Paintbrushes
• Glue – Hot Glue gun is always better but there must be constant supervision
• Tape/ Blue Tack
• Scissors

Try it out!

Step 1

We recommend that you design the sleigh before actually building it. It will give you some time to think about why you want the sleigh to look the way you want it to and what needs to be included in the design to make it the best possible sleigh. You can also use this time to look up information on a search engine or from books.

Remember why Santa needs his sleigh as you’re designing and carrying out research. Here are some questions which you can ask yourself to help you when designing the sleigh:

• Will someone be driving the sleigh? Do you need space for this person in the sleigh?
• When is it used? Consider the time of day & weather. Will these influence the design of your sleigh?
• Does it need to land? If yes, how will it land on ceilings or on the ground?
• How will the sleigh work? Does it need fuel? Are you using reindeers?

Step 2

Gather resources and materials which will help you bring your design to life, and then start building!

Step 3

Test it out. Can it hold presents? If someone is going to be driving the sleigh, use a small toy as Santa and see whether there is space for him in the sleigh.

After testing and asking your loved ones for feedback, is there anything else you can change to improve the sleigh?

Our Design

We decided to write a bit about our sleigh design, not to influence your own design, but rather to encourage you to think outside the box 😊

In our case, we decided that Santa’s sleigh should have engines, just like planes have engines. The engines will help to push the sleigh forward. We decided to still use the magical reindeers and their superspeed power, but having engines will help them.

We don’t want to take up too much space on the sleigh for fuel. So we decided that the engines will work using wind power! It can get quite windy high up in the atmosphere so turbines on the sleigh will turn the wind into electricity to power the sleigh.

We also researched the fastest bird, which turns out to be the Peregrine Falcon. It dives to hunt at a speed of 390 km/hr. Amazing right? So we decided that the shape of the sleigh should be similar to the streamlined shape of the falcon.

We also discussed the fact that since Santa doesn’t want to be spotted by us on Christmas eve, we decided that rather than being red and gold, the sleigh should be reflective. This way, it will reflect the sky around it. So if it’s travelling at night, it will reflect the night sky, giving him the ability to hide from us all!

The fun part about doing science at home is that you get to share them with your pets! Yes, the sleigh survived!

Share your creation with us on social media

 by tagging us on social media @esploramalta #esploramalta #getcuriousgetinspired

Take it further!

Build more than one sleigh and see which one is the best at carrying gifts around the world on Christmas Eve!

Show us what you’ve made! Take a photo of at least 4 of your favourite activities from Esplora’s Science Advent Calendar. Trust us, you’ll need them later!