Christmas Float on Steroids

A small group of us, as part of the Silver Lake Elementary School Dad's Club, worked hard on construction of a float for the Grapevine, TX Parade of Lights Christmas Parade. On a tight budget, with some donated and low-cost supplies with re-use of materials from last year, we were able to construct one killer float for the parade. Float features include letter blocks with lights that synchronized with the music, mechanized toy soldier arms, mechanized rocking horse, a candy cane forest, and a 12 foot tall jack-in-the-box. Creativity and safety were kept in mind because we not only tried to create a great exhibit, but we also had to safely transport 70+ kids on this float. With a series of cables, a generator, drill, car starter gear, car flywheel, creative welding and wiring, and lots and lots of lights and labor, we were able to piece together a nice low budget float.

To our surprise, the float turned out great and we won first place in the float competition which comes with a $1000 prize from the chamber of commerce. The prize was great to receive because it covered all costs of float production (sub-$600) with some funds left over for future Dad's Club projects and events.

Below is a video of the mechanics at work during our test run in the assembly warehouse.