Jingle Street

A hand-cranked Christmas street. Turn one red knob and everything on it moves.

Three buildings, one crank

Santa's cottage, a penguin slide and a skating pond, each on its own snowy lot, with the North Pole tower closing the street on the right.

It starts at the knob

Turn the red knob on the side of the North Pole tower, about once a second. Turn it backwards and it only clicks: the street runs one way.

Three gears in the tower

Behind the tower's windows a 30-tooth gear drives a 14-tooth idler and an 18-tooth gear, so the shaft below spins 1.67 times for every turn of your hand.

A shaft under the whole street

The shaft runs through every lot. On each one a 12-tooth gear turns a 36-tooth crown, and the crown turns the building above once for every 1.8 turns of the knob. If a building jams, its crown slips with a click and the rest of the street keeps going.

Santa takes a look

A cam under the cottage roof lifts Santa out of the chimney, turning him a quarter turn to look down the street. Then it lets go, and he drops back in with a clack.

8 penguins, round and round

Fins inside the ice tower push the penguins up a spiral track, past the window. At the top they roll out down a chute, zig-zag down 3 ice ramps into the pool, and ride up again.

Skaters on the pond

The Christmas tree turns in the middle of the ice. Its ribbon arms pull 2 skaters round an oval groove in the ice.

Room for more

Every building sits on its own lot, and lots push together end to end. A lot added to the street is turned by the same crank, up to 8 lots long.

Up close

Every building sits on its own white lot, and the lots butt together into one long snowy street with the North Pole tower at its end.

Jingle Street from the front: the Jingle Street sign, Santa's red-roofed cottage, the blue ice tower with its ramps, the skating pond and the brown North Pole tower with its red crank knob — The whole street, end to end, from the sign on the left to the crank on the right.

Santa standing up out of the brick chimney on the cottage's red roof — Santa up out of his chimney, looking down the street. A moment later he drops back in with a clack.

The ice tower with black-and-white penguins on its zig-zag ramps and waiting in the pool at its foot — Penguins on the zig-zag ramps, and two more waiting in the pool at the tower's foot for their ride up.

The skating pond: a green tree with a gold star on a brown trunk, red and white ribbon arms and two skaters on blue ice — The tree turns on its trunk, and the red ribbon ring drags the skaters round the ice.

The North Pole tower's side with its brown crank arm and red knob — The knob sits out on the tower's right side, clear of the table for your fingers.

Jingle Street on a wooden mantel in warm evening light, a lit candle in a glass on one side and a ceramic mug on the other, pine garland behind — Ours lives on the mantel in December, between the candle and the mugs. Everyone who walks past gives the knob a turn.

Jingle Street on a light oak desk in daylight, a white coffee mug and a keyboard behind it — At 15.5 × 4.6 × 7.2 in it sits beside a keyboard without taking over the desk.

Jingle Street on a white bookshelf next to a row of cloth-bound books, a small potted pine at the end — On a bookshelf it stands lower than the books, with the knob right at the end where a hand finds it.

A street that gets longer

Jingle Street is 3 lots and the North Pole tower. Each lot carries its own piece of the shaft, joined to the next by a dog coupling, so a building on any lot is driven by the same knob.

The crank is made to turn up to 8 lots. Every building takes its own share of the turn, and a stuck one slips on its own instead of stopping the street.

Jingle Street today Room on one crank

Jingle Street

Size: 15.5 × 4.6 × 7.2 in, the whole street with its tower
Weight: 18.1 oz
On the street: Santa's cottage, the penguin slide with 8 penguins, the skating pond with 2 skaters, the North Pole crank tower, the end cap and the Jingle Street sign
Drive: One hand crank, forward only. Nothing to plug in and no batteries.
Grows to: 8 lots on one crank
Age: 14 and up. The penguins are small balls; keep them from small children.