Santa's Shop 2016 will be operating in the window of Brightway Insurance Agency from 5 P.M. to 9 P.M. daily during December. The address is : 9127 SW 52nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32608.

Santa's Shop 2016 will be a highly animated display, kind of like the old department store windows, yet updated using newer technology. The display, 7 feet wide, 7.5 feet high, 3 feet deep will be available for public viewing after Thanksgiving somewhere in Gainesville, Florida (details, details--I won't charge anything and it advertises nothing, so it should find a home).

The basic shell (which must be modular, transportable in a Prius, and fit through doors) is shown in the picture. I 3d printed "lumber" and glued it together to see how the basic structure would come together.

Step 1:

A train will circle the rotating Christmas tree. All parts need to be very reliable (run 12 hours per day for 30 days), so that will limit some of my choices. In this photo (on the right) you can see the cymbal clanging monkey--he will have to be dissected, made reliable and computer controlled.

Step 2:

This is an eight degree of freedom elf. There will be several of these characters and they will interact with each other and multiple moving things. When the elf is dressed and debugged, he will be the subject of an instructable.

My wife, Annelle, made the elf head using clay (which I scanned and turned into a 3d object to attach to a servo motor). She not only creates the whimsical characters, but also costumes and provides artistic touches for the display.

Years ago, we created a lower tech version of this which was displayed annually in the Sanibel Public library.

Follow me if you want to watch this project as it progresses.