The Winter Village sub-theme of sets has seen a lot of interesting locations and subjects over the years, including weird gingerbread people. This year’s set Santa’s Visit feels very grounded.
The set is all about the rituals of Christmas Eve; the family dinner, the excited child not wanting to sleep, the stockings by the fireplace and the cookies left for Santa. Those rituals are part of the magic that is Christmas. Christmas Day gets a lot of hype because it’s got the opening of the presents but for me I almost prefer Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve has the anticipation without the stress. The excited kids without the over-excited kids. It’s perfect.
I love the book the Night Before Christmas and this set feels like a page from it brought to life.
The most interesting part of this set when you are building it is obviously the unusual footprint. Rather than being built on rectangular plates it uses angled elements to create a large V shape. The rear is open so you can appreciate all of the internal detailing. The shape actually makes the interior more accessible to play as the walls angle outwards.
That internal detailing is gorgeous by the way. So many great examples of brick built furniture and other bits and pieces. The mixer is absolutely a favourite. My wife has a red mixer and I love seeing little things that connect me to a build like that. Just be careful if you remove the mixer – my son took it out to have a look at it and I could not get it back in place easily with my fat fingers.
The dining table and chairs look great but they do take up a lot of the central floor space. I’m torn because I really love the family dinner aspect of it but I do wonder if it’s the best use of space.
The lower left side of the house features the kitchen. There is freshly baked bread and a sink made of the hollow 1×2 rounded brick. It’s a perfect piece to use as a sink.
Above the kitchen is the little girl’s bedroom. I like how there is a theme to the room with the space poster and the planet in the corner. It’s little touches like this that help flesh out the world of a LEGO set. The girl’s bedroom includes a cute bed and a desk. She’s using the desk to write her letter to Santa. Based on what is happening in the rest of the set she has left it a bit late.
The right side of the house is taken up with the lounge room with grand chimney and a cosy looking armchair. You also have a small table with a mug and cookies for Santa.
The chimney features a lot of Christmas trim with candles and stockings hung, I assume, with care. I really like the family portrait tile (even though it is a pretty big sticker).
This is also where we find the set’s single play feature. Santa can be dropped down the chimney and he’ll slide out the bottom knocking over the flames. This works pretty well, as gravity is doing most of the work. The only fiddly part is putting the flames back up. They also fall over pretty easily if you are moving the set around.
Those four areas are it for the house. It’s particularly impractical with the kids bedroom seemingly the only one present. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for the lack of sleep parents get in the lead up to Christmas?
I found the implementation of the roofing a bit odd, using a technic frame to connect it to the walls. I don’t know if this was just a structural thing or not but it just seemed a bit unusual.
The exterior is very snowy. The roof is covered in snow and there is snow piled up on the window sills. This would look a little bland but LEGO have added just enough colour with a liberal application of holly.
The house itself is not the only build with a number of smaller builds included. One of those is the Christmas tree. I love the tree in concept. It uses an enclosed light brick and a lot of clear elements to allow the tree to light up. It looks great but the tree just sits loosely on the base. It also doesn’t fit in the house.
The second additional build is a small section of fence. It’s fine. It just feels superfluous.
There are 4 minifigures included in the set. Firstly we have the family who lives in the house – mum, dad and a little girl. The little girl is super cute in her PJs while mum and dad are pretty normally dressed. I would have loved to see these minifigures looking a little more festive.
Finally we get the big guy himself. This is a really great looking Santa. Nice glasses print and bushy beard. The torso printing is good with a little touch of gold on his belt buckle. The legs are duel molded for his black boots which is much better than just printing.
So should you buy 10293 Santa’s Visit? If you love Christmas sets then definitely. This set really captures the magic of Christmas Eve and distills it into a fun set. I can see this being a fun set to modify with minifigures versions of your own family.
There are some parts of this that I don’t love but they are all minor, like the weird roof and the Christmas tree that’s not part of the house. None of those negatives make me not want to recommend this one.
10293 Santa’s Visit can be purchased from LEGO online for $159.99. You may also be able to find it at your local Certified Store.
I thought this was an outstanding set, one of the best of the year. A delightful building experience with a few surprises, a very clever and realistic roof and plenty of detail. In prime position in the Christmas Village this year.
My only nit-pick was the round sticker for the portrait. Is there anyone out there who has ever put a round sticker on straight and centred??