GULF SHORES, Ala. – Finding a sleigh for Santa is tougher than it sounds.

Gulf Shores Program and Events Director Brigette Reynolds began that search after last Christmas. And it ended with Roger Groves of the Public Works department building the holiday prop for the city.

“After last Christmas, right after our last year’s parade, I got to looking at it and if we’re going to do this and Santa’s going to go right through the town and see all the kids, we need a really cool sleigh for him to ride in,” Reynolds said. “We need the real deal.”

The real deal was an elusive concept which was the reason the city had rented one for past Christmas celebrations.

“Before had the parade, we had always rented a sleigh and put it on the steps of the civic center for open house,” she said. “Then we had breakfast with Santa and then we added the parade and we rented the sleigh for the extra date.”

So Reynolds starting scouring internet sites and weighing the options she found there. They weren’t putting her in the holiday spirit.

“Where do I get a sleigh?” she said. “Of course there are snow-drawn sleighs and they are only in Minnesota, Massachusetts and they are old or in disrepair or they are $5,000 to $7,000. And then you have to ship it.

“So I was a little disheartened and I thought ‘my gosh, I’m not going to be able to do this. We’re going to have to rent a sleigh.’”

And finally Reynolds stumbled upon just the right story during her internet research.

“I found online a story as I’m doing my multiple search words about this city thanking all these different sponsors for helping Santa get in his sleigh,” she said. “So I clicked through and it was a parade in Oregon. And I called the person in charge of the parade.”

On the other end of the line she found a kindred spirit.

“And this gentleman starts telling me his story and it’s the same story as ours,” she said. “He rented and they had this and they used trailers and he just couldn’t stand the fact that Santa didn’t have a really cool sleigh.

“So he and his wife designed a sleigh out of cardboard in his front yard and he went about getting things donated and got the sleigh built. He was kind enough, he emailed me plans for his sleigh and he would love to help the City of Gulf Shores have a cool sleigh because he felt my pain.”

The man was Ernie Giltin from Bend, Ore. And while Reynolds didn’t start putting something together in her front yard, she did turn to the city’s Public Works Department.

“I told them ‘I’ve run the gamut of trying to find us a sleigh. It’s too expensive or impossible to find one that exists, but we need a sleigh,’” she said. “They took the plans and they came up with a design out of plywood and said ‘come see what you think of this.’ Roger Groves kind of took on the project and used a lot of his extra time, of which they have none, in building the sleigh.”

Groves used whatever he could find to build the sleigh to keep costs down.

“There was a lot of leftover wood from different projects and plywood and things he fabricated and used so the cost would stay really low,” Reynolds said. “It’s made out of wood and metal. He put a lot of blood sweat and tears into building that sleigh, getting the curves on it just right and getting the sleigh rails and all the reinforcements.

“It’s got a trunk on it so maybe we can add to it, maybe wire Santa up with a mike one day so he can speak as he goes down.”

Less than a $1,000 later, the city had the “cool sleigh” Reynolds was hoping for and it was an instant hit.

“It was my heart’s desire to do something bigger and better for Santa this year and through many trials and tribulations we ended up with a really cool sleigh through a lot of efforts of many people,” she said. “We ended up with this almost Whoville style oversized, bigger than life, wonderful sleigh.”

At this year’s city events people flocked to see the sleigh.

“We got to showcase it at open house and it was a huge hit,” Reynolds said. “The culinary students at the high school did refreshments for that night and probably two hours before the event here sat these three 17-year-old girls in the sleigh singing Christmas carols with no one there. They wouldn’t get out of it. Every time I walked by they were singing something else. They just loved it.

“Before Santa got there people were in that sleigh like crazy.”

Reynolds said a debt of gratitude is owed to Giltin, the man from Oregon who sent down the plans.

“He inspired me not to give up and to make this happen and gave us the plans and kind of lit the fire under us to get it done,” she said.