The idea for the Santa Totter was taken off of the wire frame elf totter that many of you may have seen.  My wife wanted one that was more 3D, so I went to work trying to make a good design.  I had bought an animated angel last year, which didn’t look too good for about 5 dollars on an after Christmas special.  So, I decided to take some parts off of it and make it into the Santa Totter. Those parts were the motor, the connector that connects to the motor, and a long branch of wire that I could connect to the main board.

Main Board
The first thing I did was to cut a 1x4 to about 2 foot in length.  This is the part you see about where the snowman and penguin sit on.  I also cut two more pieces of 1x4 to make the seats that the characters sit on.  I used red latex spray paint and sprayed these pieces of wood.  Then I took part of the wire frame that I cut from the angel and nailed it to the underside of the main board with u shaped nails. The other part that I took from the angel was also placed on the board.  This is where the motor connects to the main board to make it move up and down.(I already sized this up with the motor before tacking down to main board)   It looks like this at this point.


Base
On the base you can make this anyway you want.  The wider the better.  I tried to make it into a present.  But, anyway, I used 1x6s and cut 2 to a foot in length.  This was for my front and back.  Then I cut a piece for the bottom and the sides.  So it is somewhat like a box.  Just make sure you make room for the wire frame piece that connects from the motor to the main board. (left side)  Then I drilled a hole in the front and back piece to put the wire frame piece through.   For the motor assembly, I bent a piece of aluminum stock into a 90 deg angle.  Holes were drilled into the aluminum stock to place the motor on.  I then drilled holes into the bottom board and screwed the aluminum stock in.  When you connect the motor to the main board, it will look like this.  My wife painted these boards to look like a present.  She also put a bow on the front. 


Final Touches
My wife had bought some flashing Christmas lights last year from a craft show.  I wired up the main board so I could connect these lights to each of the seats on the main board.  My wife bought two characters from Wal-mart (as seen in the picture) and I tacked them to the seats with the u shaped nails.   To make the totters’s handles I cut down two pvc pipes and topped it off with a T shape connector. I painted them with green plastic paint and glued them to the top board.  It looks like this without the characters.

Front view without front piece.

Created & Written by Mark Sloat
www.thechristmaskennel.com