The Story.

In the Fall of 2004 with a mission to create something for a church building fundraiser, Benjamin Wesley Collins, a retired petroleum engineer turned woodworker, decided to build a sleigh in his two-car garage on Gingerwilde Place in The Woodlands, Texas.

    With some serious imagination, calculation, determination and eventually a hundred clamps of all sizes, Ben would fill his garage with a multitude of woodworking tools as he began planning to build the sleigh. From printed plans for a Vermont woodworker’s miniature toy sleigh, it would become a woodworker’s masterpiece. Because the plans Ben had were for a toy, he would need to modify the design of the sleigh for it to become full-sized. “It’ll be large enough to hold people,” he said.

    Work began in September and by late October he cut out pieces of all sizes and shapes. He also started studying the art of bending wood. By mid-November the weather was cooler, making for some perfect days. With the garage doors up, there came opportunities to visit with the neighbors passing by, all curious to view the progress of the sleigh.

    Some days the project spilled into the house, and so did the sawdust. They were long days with many details to sort out. There beside him cheering him on and lending her hands too was his devoted wife, Mitzi. Then one day the forms he built were complete and the strips of wood were cut and ready for the bend. Unfortunately, the temperature dropped leaving Ben with a new challenge - cold weather. Wood glue, paint and cold weather are not friends.

     With rented heat lamps, Ben gathered family and neighbors to come take part in the next step. Each person held a position on the long-stacked strips of wood that would be layered and freshly glued. Everyone helped by bending them around the forms so he could glue, clamp the stack, and wipe up the excess glue. It worked ideally so the process was repeated six more times to perfection.

    Once everything was dry, cut, and ready for assembly, the sleigh came together at a fast pace; however, there was still sanding the round edges on the front and back. Ben would run his fingers along the freshly sanded edges and encourage anyone standing around to do the same. “There’s something completely satisfying about that very process that calls you to do it and to make sure it’s smooth,” Ben would say.

    By early December, with the heat lamps still fired up, the sleigh was ready for the first of several layers of red paint. Once the many coats of red paint dried, he asked his daughter-in-law, Elena, to add the gold detail around the side edges and to the front and back.

    When it was complete, we took a few family photos for Christmas cards. Then several men moved the sleigh onto a flatbed trailer, delivered it to a shell of a building and displayed it in what would become the narthex of Wildwood United Methodist Church in Magnolia, Texas. The Big Red Sleigh was a showstopper and a delight for everyone who walked into the auction that night.

     The winning bid for the sleigh went to a couple in Magnolia who lived just down the street from the church. They took exceptional care of it and would display it each year. Eventually, they would move it to their new home in Kentucky. In 2018 they contacted their friends and former neighbors in Magnolia, Jim and Elaine DuBose, and asked whether they’d be interested in taking over ownership. “Come to Kentucky. You’ll need a trailer“.

    Within days, Jim and Elaine would drive to Kentucky and return the sleigh back to its home state of Texas. For the last several years, the DuBose family has enjoyed displaying this work of art each holiday season as children and grandchildren would crowd in around the sleigh for photos and fun. After Christmas each year, they stored it in their garage with a pulley system that would securely store it until the next holiday season.

     This year Ben’s family received a phone call from the DuBose family asking whether they would like the sleigh. With no place to store the big red sleigh, an idea and a phone call made for an exciting new place for it to call home. Elena phoned Bobbie, a friend from her youth, who works in administration at Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands, Texas to see if they would be interested in the sleigh. The response came back with an exciting yes!

     In October of 2021, the sleigh was donated to Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands, Texas and now TCH has become the newest owner of the Big Red Sleigh Ben built in his garage so many years ago. Ben is no longer with us, but he would be thrilled to hear the stories of the sleigh’s travels and to know that it has landed at TCH.

    The sleigh, “large enough to hold people”, will no doubt continue to bring smiles and joy each holiday season and we give thanks for Ben and his woodworking masterpiece.