The Story of "Driving Home for Christmas"
When my daughter was little we would take her to the Santa Claus Parade in the Village of Fenelon falls close to our place on Balsam Lake. As she grew older we drifted away from this annual family pilgrimage, however once my grandchildren came along my daughter reinstituted the tradition and for the past eight years or so so we have attended the parade with them. The parade is an accessible and intimate small town setting, and was always entertaining. Firetrucks, marching bands, local community groups and local businesses were all part of the event. It is an evening parade and everything is colourfully lit. The parade in 2017 was a turning point. With the kids are a little older I suggested that maybe we could have a float and walk in the parade. I thought it is time to give back to the community and also make a lasting family memory of our own.
So in December I pitched the thought of of entering our own float and walking in the Fenelon Santa Day Parade. The seed had been planted and I started thinking of parade ideas. With my wife, daughter and her husband still working I recognized that a lot of the construction and design details would fall to me. As it would likely only be something we would do once I thought we should plan something special that would stand out in the parade, and of course doing something with my automata making skills in mind; it should be animated. It would be as close to working for Disney as I would ever get.
When my daughter was young we would travel every Christmas from Toronto to Balsam Lake for Christmas and a winter holiday. Our travel anthem in the car was "Driving Home For Christmas" a bouncy holiday song by Chris Rhea. He sings of driving home for Christmas to his family along side many other holiday travellers anticipating reuniting with his family. It has remained my most favourite contemporary Christmas songs ever since. I look forward to hearing it played every year and I often play it myself in the car. This seemed like a natural theme for our parade entry.
Christmas parades can be magical events for children so it was important to have appeal for them. People driving in a car would just not do! It would have to be someone who would need to travel to go home, be whimsical in nature, and perhaps a little cartoonish. I chose penguins. many children are enamoured by the "Penguins of Madagascar" and many adults consider them cute and cuddly. They seem to be a popular item these days, even being regular;y feature on a national bank advertising campaign in Canada. My default was to make them cartoonish, for the kids, so they are painted simply and not so authentically. so with penguins as the leading characters I was off into design.
So in December I pitched the thought of of entering our own float and walking in the Fenelon Santa Day Parade. The seed had been planted and I started thinking of parade ideas. With my wife, daughter and her husband still working I recognized that a lot of the construction and design details would fall to me. As it would likely only be something we would do once I thought we should plan something special that would stand out in the parade, and of course doing something with my automata making skills in mind; it should be animated. It would be as close to working for Disney as I would ever get.
When my daughter was young we would travel every Christmas from Toronto to Balsam Lake for Christmas and a winter holiday. Our travel anthem in the car was "Driving Home For Christmas" a bouncy holiday song by Chris Rhea. He sings of driving home for Christmas to his family along side many other holiday travellers anticipating reuniting with his family. It has remained my most favourite contemporary Christmas songs ever since. I look forward to hearing it played every year and I often play it myself in the car. This seemed like a natural theme for our parade entry.
Christmas parades can be magical events for children so it was important to have appeal for them. People driving in a car would just not do! It would have to be someone who would need to travel to go home, be whimsical in nature, and perhaps a little cartoonish. I chose penguins. many children are enamoured by the "Penguins of Madagascar" and many adults consider them cute and cuddly. They seem to be a popular item these days, even being regular;y feature on a national bank advertising campaign in Canada. My default was to make them cartoonish, for the kids, so they are painted simply and not so authentically. so with penguins as the leading characters I was off into design.
Designing the Float - Concept
I set my mind in motion over the holidays and came up with a conceptual idea for a float and proceeded to detail my ideas. I decided to use foam construction for any characters since the light weight would make the animation easier. The floats mechanics and illumination would be handled with a portable generator in the tow vehicle. Obviously any float with the theme driving home for Christmas needs a car. So an open top roadster would be centre stage with four penguins on board. They will be animated to move on various ways once I figured out the geometry and method of construction. I was trying to keep the size of the float fairly modest but with just a car it seemed short and stubby so I added three penguins to waddle along behind it in a row. Early on in the process I considered four separate penguin vignettes for each of the corners of the float, but later changed plans when space became limited. I did however decide to fill the space along the side of the car with a collection of seagulls that observe the parade watchers. They are reminiscent of the sea gulls in "Finding Nemo" who scream, "Mine, Mine!" while fighting over morsels of food. They would be low enough to not obstruct the view of the car. On the back of the float would be enough room for one more penguin, likely holding some sort of sign. Some of the vacant corners would now be filled with illuminated trees and snowdrifts. There would be perimeter lighting and a series of hidden spotlights to illuminate the characters. The parade is an evening parade so lighting is a major component.
Before committing "whole hog" a decided to prototype a penguin character to see how challenging the work was going to be. His animation would be a moving beak and a waddling motion. The long and the short of it was the creation of Waldo, the first character a 36" tall cartoon penguin. This started the whole "Driving Home for Christmas" project off!
Before committing "whole hog" a decided to prototype a penguin character to see how challenging the work was going to be. His animation would be a moving beak and a waddling motion. The long and the short of it was the creation of Waldo, the first character a 36" tall cartoon penguin. This started the whole "Driving Home for Christmas" project off!