It's that time of year once again! Families are already focusing on the details of decorating to celebrate Christmas, and how to decorate their Christmas tree in particular.
As you hang your family's ornaments this year, you've probably noticed most of them aren't very exciting. And to be sure, they're not. If you think about it, their only function is to hang there on your tree. Wouldn't it be nice to have Christmas ornaments that feature a lot more action to liven the holiday spirit up.
Inventors Marc Segan and Michael Newsome were thinking along those lines back in the early 1990s. Their idea was to transform a large section of a Christmas tree into Santa's ski resort, complete with a ski run and lift, where a miniature figure could ride the lift up to the top, then slalom through the branches and around the tree back to the bottom before repeating the cycle. For their innovative thinking, they were awarded U.S. Patent 5,279,871 on 18 January 1994. Here's Figure 1 from the patent, which we've colorized to make the various components stand out:
Segan and Newsome describe how they brought action to holiday ornaments with their invention:
The present invention is a Christmas display resembling a ski-lift and ski-slope, for use in conjunction with a Christmas tree. The display comprises a track having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is at a higher elevation than the second end, and a lift disposed between the first end and the second end. The device also comprises a plurality of figurines having a base configured for slidable movement along track from the first end of track to the second end of track whereby the lift transports the figurine back to the first end of the track in a continuous manner.
The figurine (30) in the patent illustration is a miniature Santa on skis! Just imagine him skiing around your tree through the whole holiday season, celebrating the holiday at the ski resort on your Christmas tree. The only way you could have more action in a Christmas setting with with a scale model of the Nakatomi Plaza building and a miniature reenactment of Die Hard.
From the Inventions in Everything Archives
Here's a selection of Christmas and tree-related inventions the IIE team has previously featured: