I’ve created directions in case you’d like to build the gingerbread man I posted yesterday.
Category: Holidays
Merry Xmas 2025: Gingerbread Man Ornament
Merry Christmas! This year I designed a festive tree ornament, a gingerbread man! It’s a pretty simple design, some nougat colored plates with a few tiles added for decoration. Hope you are having a pleasant holiday season.
Advent 2024
I am sorry to say this year I didn’t make it all the way through Advent. We bought a house in November, and I tried to do the usual daily Advent posts while amid the chaos of preparing the house, packing, and moving, but it was difficult to keep up (even more than it usually is) and the last straw was after Day 15 when I had a sewage flood at my LEGO studio! I just couldn’t keep going, and stopped at Day 15, and by the time I would have been able to resume it was well into the next year and didn’t seem appropriate to retroactively be covering the holidays. Plus, I was pretty upset about the election results and busy with the new house. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year.
Advent 2023 MOC Instructions
In Advent 2023, after the first week I built an original model of my own design each day using the parts from the Friends and Marvel sets. Here are the instructions to build these models. Like the calendar posts, each of these was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 8, and continuing with a daily post from then on out. Now, they are archived in a single post.
Advent 2023
I can’t believe it’s already December and time to crank up the old Advent Calendar engine once more! This year I purchased two of the available five calendars LEGO has released: Friends and Marvel. Like with last year, I’m doing daily YouTube videos as well as blog posts, so choose whatever medium you like… Starting on Day 8, I also designed original MOCs from the leftover parts – instructions are in a separate post. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2023 edition.
Like last year I chose not to do all 5 of the Advent calendars LEGO publishes, just these two. But if you want to build the others, here are some links to them on Amazon: City, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. (But please don’t support Harry Potter, due to the transphobic political views of J. K. Rowling.)
Advent 2022
Another year’s Advent has come around. Last year I decided not to do LEGO Advent, but I’m going to give it another go this time around with just 3 of the 5 possible Advent calendars. I’m doing the Guardians of the Galaxy, Friends, and City calendars. This year I also started making YouTube videos about each day’s builds. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2022 edition.
Día de los Muertos 2022
I’ve created a bunch of new MOCs (“My Own Creations”) for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). BayLUG honored the Mexican holiday by displaying our themed collaboration at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA. The show will continue through January 15 (see schedule below), if you want to come see it.
Advent 2020
2020 was the year I chose to only do the City Advent Calendar – no Friends, Star Wars, or Harry Potter. I wrote about that decision in a separate post. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2020 edition.
Advent 2019
I can’t believe it’s already December! As I do every year, I’ve purchased all of the available LEGO Advent Calendar sets and for each day I will be posting photos of that day’s models and discussing them. This year we have four Advent calendars: City, Friends, Harry Potter (new calendar theme), and Star Wars. I was a day late getting started – out of town for the weekend. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2019 edition.
Advent 2018
In 2018, unlike the last two, we don’t have a 24-in-1 set (“Christmas build-up”) to play with, unfortunately, so we’re back to just the basic Advent calendars in City, Friends, and Star Wars. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2018 edition.
Happy New Year 2018
I came up with this little sign to commemorate the new year, and made instructions for it.
Advent 2017
The time has come once more for the annual LEGO Advent calendars! This year we have once more the same three themes – City, Friends, and Star Wars – and like last year there is a 24-in-1 “Christmas Build-Up” set 40253. The latter was a freebie that you got in November for making a $100 purchase from LEGO – it’s no longer available from them, but you may find them on Amazon. (The Advent calendars may be sold out at your LEGO store as well, but using the Amazon links above helps support this blog and is most appreciated.) Once again I designed a MOC from the leftover Build-Up parts each day – you can find instructions for all of those in a separate post. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2017 edition.
Happy Pi Day 2017
Happy Pi Day! March 14, or 3/14 as Americans write it, is a day to celebrate all things mathematical. For Pi Day this year I designed a LEGO clock face using the first 12 digits of pi instead of 1-12.
Happy New Year 2017
Well 2016 is over and done with… it had its ups but an awful lot of downs. Here’s hoping 2017 is better. I made this little model to celebrate New Years Day. Hope you enjoy!
Advent 2016 MOC Instructions
Throughout the first 24 days of December I had been posting about the Advent Calendar and Christmas Build-Up models. Each day I designed and built a MOC (My Own Creation) using the parts leftover after building each day’s Christmas Build-Up model, and while some of them are holiday themed, most were not. So I have created instructions if you want to build them yourself.
Santa and Reindeer
So after building the Day 24 models from Advent and Christmas Build-Up I was disappointed that my sleigh only had one reindeer…. so I dug parts out of my collection and built eight more, and devised a way to hitch them all together, and put Santa Claus from the Advent City calendar in the sleigh along with the gifts from the Christmas Build-Up model.
Advent 2016
Another year, another set of LEGO Advent Calendars. Once more this year we have three: 60133 City Advent Calendar, 41131 Friends Advent Calendar, and 75146 Star Wars Advent Calendar. But new this year there is another option, a 24-in-1 set 40222 Christmas Build Up, so on top of the usual City, Friends, and Star Wars calendars, I was also building a Build-Up model each day, plus designing my own MOC from the leftover parts! Instructions for all the MOCs are in a separate post. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2016 edition.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Sleigh and Reindeer from Advent calendar with 8 tiny reindeer added (based on the Rudolph from the calendar build, but with black noses) and a harness of my own design.
Flat Santa
Inspired by the adorable Platecraft Snowman by Chris McVeigh I came up with this design for Santa Claus in a similar style.
Dumpster Fire 2016
Celebrate the end (at last) of the year 2016 with this lovely ornament. Let’s hope 2017 brings us some kind of better news. Based on a Dumpster design by Bruce Lowell.
Happy New Year 2016
I hope you had a safe and happy New Years celebration, and wish you happiness and success in the coming year.
Merry Christmas 2015
I used parts from the City, Advent, and Star Wars Advent Calendars to build this little scene.
Advent 2015
2015 was another year of three LEGO Advent Calendars: City, Friends, and Star Wars. I barely made the Day 1 deadline, posting at 11:46 PM! As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2015 edition.
Each year LEGO produces several advent calendars, featuring 24 mini-models, one for each day of December through Christmas Eve. For several years I posted these entries each day on my blog.
If you haven’t gotten your Advent calendars yet, here are some links to them on Amazon: Star Wars, City, Friends.