For my engineering class, we were tasked to enter into the 3d ornament contest for the White House. The idea was to make an interesting 3d ornament to be hung on a christmas tree. After toying with the idea of making a festive Abraham Lincoln, I decided that a sleigh would be the best idea. Once I set upon making a sleigh the entire process flew naturally, additions to the sleigh came and went based on momentary feeling. In the end, I feel that Santa's new sleigh is quite successful.

Step 1: Getting Started

I first created a loose shape of the sleigh, paying little attention the curvature. I figured that it would be easier to make rounded edges after I could visualize the sleigh. The goal for this step was a box-like shape out of several squares and cylinders.

Step 2: Curves

After having created the bulky shape, I decided that it was time to add curves to the sleigh. I used the community generated half tube shapes and the Hole Function to cut away bits of the blocks. After a bunch of cuts and circles the sleigh's body was just about finished.

Step 3: The Rails

After the body was finished, it was time to give the sleigh some rails. I had a vague idea of what the rails should look like, but as for decorations I drew a blank on what would be too complicated or too simple. After looking at a few inspiring sleighs on the Internet, I settled on the festive phrase: "Ho Ho Ho." The rail was made by attaching and distorting quarter pipes to the ends to give a rounded metal look. The word "Ho" was made using the letter-forming tool within tinker cad. After the words were attached, the rest was adding bars to attach the rail to the bottom of the sleigh. Once the first rail was done, it was just a matter of duplicating the design and raising the sleigh to accommodate for its new legs.

Step 4: Decorations

After the sleigh was standing on its own, it was time to decorate it for the holidays. I shifted the seat forward to make room for Santa's presents, and I added a few colorful ribbons and ornaments to get rid of any blank space.

Step 5: Personalization

After the design was finished, I felt that it lacked personality. To remedy this I decided to make Santa go super sonic by attaching a rocket onto the back of his sleigh, and attaching wings on the sides. Santa was then ready for his annual flight in style.