Guinness Book of Records
Biggest Santa Claus in the world
On 6 December 1998, we transformed the church tower in St Niklaus VS, measuring almost 36.8 metres tall, into the world’s tallest Santa Claus. This was the first time our company made it into the Guinness Book of Records.
The people of St Niklaus hoped to make the village known beyond the borders of the canton. St Niklaus is centrally located between the health resorts of Graechen and Zermatt and boasts a wide range of tourist attractions.
In order to build the biggest Santa Claus in the world, we had to dig deep into our bag of tricks. The special production was designed and manufactured by Sarna Plastec – no easy task, as producing such oversized parts is not part of our day-to-day business.
First, Air Zermatt flew in a huge cylindrical grille to protect the church tower. With an ingenious system of eyelets and lugs, Santa Claus was attached to the 350-year-old church tower. Six specialists, including mountain guides, worked on cladding the church tower. The biggest challenge was the preparation and fastening of the head, which consisted of six sheets.
Biggest igloo in the world
Our very first Igluformers© were used on Engstligenalp, the largest plateau in the western Swiss Alps at 2000 m above sea level near the famous Chuenisbaergli World Cup piste in Adelboden. There, on 19 December 2002, on a bitterly cold winter day, we set up our balloon and built our first igloo. This was the beginning of the history of the Igluformers©. Since 2002, countless igloos have been built all over the world with our Igluformers©.
In 2011, the TV station ProSieben approached us with the request to build the largest igloo in the world for the programme Galileo. We embarked on the adventure together with an igloo-building specialist in Tyrol and developed and built the largest Igluformer© ever made. In Kuehtai, the world record Igluformer© was inflated and then covered with snow. In fact, we managed to build an igloo with an internal diameter of 12 metres and a room height of 9.5 metres. This meant it was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest igloo in the world.
Longest tie in the world
Where did the biggest tie in the world hang? That’s right, in Switzerland.
On 12 March 1999, we made the world’s longest tie for the artist Anna Zgraggen, measuring 57.6 metres. It weighed over 180 kilograms and could even float on water thanks to an interior that could be filled with air. In Andermatt UR, the tie was entered into the Guinness Book of Records.
The design on the tie, created by the artist, highlighted environmental issues with the motifs “air”, “water”, “earth” and “light”. Even back then, air and water pollution, devastation, bushfires and rainforest extinction were already important issues.
The creator Anna-Trix Zgraggen sought neither fame nor fortune. A particular concern of hers, however, was to draw attention to social inequalities and to stand up for more justice.
