Santa's Sleigh Place Cards for North Pole Party

1 What The Template Will Give You

1.1 Sleigh Dimensions

Once made, the sleigh will have the following approximate dimensions:

• inside base =  5cm wide x 8.3cm long
• length = 8.5cm
• width = 5.2cm
• height of back = 4.8cm

Candy cane runners are optional and are not included in the measurements.

1.2 Sleigh's Candy Cane Appearance

The sides and the back will be a red and white candy cane stripe on both the inside and the outside. The base will be plain white.

The name will be green in a Christmas "Wishing" font.

Note: if you are not playing our mystery game and are using the editable template, you will need to download the "Wishing" font from an online font site. Otherwise, select your own Christmassy font of choice. Then you will need to replace "Add Name" with the person's name.

All parts of the sleigh are designed to be two sheets of paper thick to give strength to the finished structure.

1.3 These Santa Sleighs Can be Used For ...

• Place Cards: as the person's name is on both sides of the sleigh, they can be used at the dinner table instead of place cards.
• Chocolates or petit fours: when made as instructed, they also strong enough to hold small chocolates or petit fours.
• Party favors: they could be used to hold small party favors for each guest.
• Napkin holders: they could hold a carefully folded small napkin.

2 What You Will Need to Make the Place Cards

• 1 piece of A4 (Letter-sized) paper per place card.
• Scissors
• Sellotape or glue

3 How to Make the Sleigh Place Cards

3.1 Make the Basic Sleigh Without Runners

Print each template on a separate piece of A4 or letter-sized paper. Then for each place card:

1 Carefully cut: around the candy cane shape and along the outer dotted lines. Cut the curve into the sides. (Follow the candy cane curve given.)

2 Tab: once cut, fold between the dotted lines of the tab and the striped lines of the sleigh so that the tab (represented by the dotted lines) can be slotted into the sides. 

 

3 Sleigh back: fold so that the striped lines appear on both sides.

4 Sleigh sides: fold in the middle so that the striped red lines appear on both sides. 

Note: you may wish to use scissors to carefully even out the curve.

 

5 Base of sleigh: fold along the dashed line so that this section goes back under the base. (This second piece of paper adds stability to the base.)

6 Sleigh sides and back: fold along dotted lines between the sides and the base and between the back and the base so that the sides and back are upright.

You will now see the shape. Carefully adjust cuts or folds as necessary.

 

7 Slide the tabs (from instruction 2) into the inside folds and Sellotape to the inside of the sides once everything is aligned.

Note: ensure the tabs are squarely into the sleigh sides so that the back and the sides rest tightly together.

8 Once the sides and back are aligned, carefully Sellotape or glue together any areas where there are gaps in the joins. Use very small amounts of glue or Sellotape so that this is as unobtrusive as possible. 

3.2 Optionally Add Candy Cane Runners

Candy cane runners are a great way of reinforcing the candy cane theme and making the sled extra cute. I bought a 24-piece pack of indivdually-wrapped peppermint and strawberry flavor canes from Naras Store on Amazon. 

3.2.1 Important Points:

Leave the plastic wrappings on - otherwise the canes will become sticky and could stick to napkins etc. They might also bleed into the paper. Also, this enables guests to later eat the candy if they so choose.

Place the candy canes towards the center of the sleigh base, with about 1-2cm in between them. This means that the base will then be able to bear the weight of small chocolates or party favors as the canes will effectively take their weight. (Remember, the base is just made out of folded paper.)

Sellotape the canes to the base. This holds them in place and also gives extra strength to the structure.

3.3 Other Ideas

Optionally add a small reindeer ornament or cake topper in front of the sledge.

Optionally have a small Santa figure inside the sleigh or small wrapped presents or boxes around it.

Optionally add other items associated with the North Pole such as snowflakes or polar bears.

4 How the Sleighs Looked in Our Murder Mystery Dinner Party

The sleighs were a feature point of our red, green, and white North Pole tablescape and added to the candy cane theme. We used them to hold small homemade chocolates and candies for our guests. See Other Sugar Cane Decoration Ideas.