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For the last fifty years or so, I have built a LEGO® Christmas card for my family. I always try to think up a new idea with a Christmas or winter theme. It's getting harder now not to repeat myself, but so far I have been successful. Here are some of the models I've built over the years.
BONUS for New Year 2021:
The "Time Squared" New Year Clock, and
Another storybook of Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol."
In 2020, granddaughter Lexi put the Elf Club House on her Christmas wish list, so I got the set for her and gave it to her in early December. We had a great time building it together over a couple of weeks, and it seemed like a good way of starting to pass on the tradition to the next generation, but building from an existing set didn’t meet my standards for originality. However, Lexi’s way of playing with LEGO inspired me: she loves to make the minifigs act out various stories - the buildings are just the sets for her plays. So here is a little story that we collaborated on (click on the picture to link to the storybook.)
LEGO® came out with a new Christmas set of a gingerbread house in 2019. I liked the idea, but since we were going to be traveling to my daughter's house and my nephew's house on Christmas Day, I also wanted to make something portable. I had already been experimenting with different contents for the pop-up book, so I combined the ideas into a pop-up gingerbread house. The book size and shape were very restrictive - I had to reject several versions before I managed to create this one.
I was thinking of using the Lego Apollo Saturn V rocket to do a celebration of the Apollo 8 Christmas trip to the moon, but that didn't seem very creative. Then Anne suggested the ice palace from "Frozen." Since I retired in June, I had plenty of time to build the biggest Lego model I've ever created on my own. It used almost every white and transparent piece I own, and I had to dismantle the Saturn V to get at all those lovely white curved pieces. Even the Diner had to be sacrificed! Click on the picture below to go to more pictures that try to recreate scenes from the movie.
Anne gave me another Lego advent calendar in 2017, and I used many of the models to build models of the things that Lexi and I enjoyed doing together. Frances organized a cottage stay over the Christmas holiday, so I also built a model of Flower Moon Cottage. The final product was a photo book that I have also formatted as a set of web pages.
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Anne and Kate gave me a Lego advent calendar. Some of the models looked like Xmas tree decorations, so I expanded on that theme. The grey and white spiky ornament is my own design, as is the snowflake on top.
Click on the picture to see the video.
Kate showed me an idea for a Lego Christmas Cookie Decorator in November. It used modern Lego Robotics kit that I don't have, but I've been teaching my students how to use the Arduino microcontroller, so I thought this would be a good demo project. The hardest part, as expected, was to get the right viscosity for the icing: too thick and it left gaps and clogged the valve; too thin and it made a blurry, drippy mess. The platform draws a nice star though. I tested it with a pen in place of the syringe.
Ever since my family gave me some "Nanoblocks" this idea for a meta-model has been in the back of my mind. This is also the first year I've had enough flesh-coloured pieces to make it look realistic.
In 2013 we renovated our back room to install a gas fireplace. It makes this room especially cozy in at Christmas.
My sister, Liz, has a Mini Cooper and made a special request for a Lego version for her visit this Christmas. Daughter, Kate, also has a passion for Mini Coopers and I've given her many model versions over the years, but never a Lego one. So here they are for Liz and Kate. The smallest Mini is made of nanoblocks.
The real meaning of Christmas.
We were feeling a bit grouchy in 2010, so the Grinch stealing Christmas seemed appropriate. For 2009, I realized I'd never made the three kings a focus of my Lego Christmas models, so here they are. There was a star over the oasis with twinkling red lights similar to the 2007 parol. In 2008, the most important thing was that we were HOME for Christmas.
In 2007, it was the parols that really caught my eye. They are a lovely Filipino tradition, and the modern versions are fantastic with multicoloured lights flashing on and off in amazing patterns. So here is my Lego version on the left compared with the more usual version on the right. Click on the Lego one to see the movie.
2006 was our first Christmas in the Philippines. I was impressed with the mall decorations and tried to make something similar. The Canadian Embassy admin staff and the students at Manila Science High School really liked my Lego models. So Santa made quite a tour before coming back to our house. Click on the picture to see Santa dance!
Our family Christmas present in 2005 was actually a New Year trip to the beaches of Grand Bahama Island.
University students going home for Christmas
Santa's sleigh (Rudolph's legs were motorized)
The shopping mall Santa with elf photographer
The twelve days of Christmas
The Night Before Christmas
A church organ and choir
Skating on a pond (there were moving magnets under the "ice" and magnets on the skaters' feet)
| When I was a teenager, we lived in Brockville, Ont.
Brockville had a famous clown by the name of Con Darling. He dressed in rags, carried an
umbrella full of holes and pushed a rickety old toy baby buggy with a live chicken inside.
Con Darling was in every parade in Brockville, and even travelled to other cities to represent
Brockville in their parades. I still remember going to see the Grey Cup parade in Toronto just
after learning that we were going to move to Brockville. There was Con Darling with a banner
attached to his baby buggy, proudly bearing the name of Brockville. My brother and I wondered
what we were getting into!
Con Darling died a few years ago, but Brockville hasn't forgotten him. You can see his statue down at Blockhouse Island on the waterfront. I haven't forgotten him either. Here's a LEGO® model of how he looked in Brockville's annual Santa Claus parade. |  |
The whole parade
Santa's Workshop
Santa heading for the chimney
Carollers
Combination of LEGO® and Playmobil dolls
Marionettes dancing in a store window
Christmas Dinner
One Christmas while I was away in Papua New Guinea, my brother filled in for me and built a LEGO® model of the house I was living in, based on photos I had sent home.
