When Kris Snepp was a young boy, Christmas – and all the activities leading up to it – were pure magic.

It was the early 1960s. Snepp and his family would wait in the cold for what seemed like hours to view the window displays at downtown department store Wolf & Dessauer.

When their turn arrived, they saw a scene straight out of Santa's workshop. Mechanical elves about 2 feet tall stood at work benches, busily building the toys that would be stuffed into Santa's sack for delivery on Christmas Eve.

That's why Snepp, now a 65-year-old retired IT professional, didn't hesitate when he was asked to help recreate some of that holiday magic by building a backdrop, platforms and other staging for three of the surviving animatronic elves. Snepp estimated he worked on the project 40 hours a week

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