Winter Village Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[lifeinplastic]

I think we’re overthinking it here. It’s a winter village. Some sets are set in European style Christmas markets or towns where it snows. Others are in the North Pole or wherever Santa and his elves live. Keep them separate or combine them however you wish. We don’t need plots and characters - sometimes it’s nice to have a blank canvas for people to use their own imaginations for a change.

Edited November 16, 2025 by lifeinplastic

[RichardGoring]

5 hours ago, lifeinplastic said:

I think we’re overthinking it here. It’s a winter village. Some sets are set in European style Christmas markets or towns where it snows. Others are in the North Pole or wherever Santa and his elves live. Keep them separate or combine them however you wish. We don’t need plots and characters - sometimes it’s nice to have a blank canvas for people to use their own imaginations for a change.

I agree with you entirely. This position also has strong evidence to support it, as my children do exactly this every year. Some of the things they come up are incredible!

[hikouki]

Some people here and also some Lego fans are confusing why we have "Christmas" sets or even CNY. I think the Christmas sets, and winter village, for example, began as culture-specific themes. Of course Christmas is a traditional event in Europe, where Lego came from. I really feel it is natural for them to have this theme, and likewise Pirates and Castle as well. Over the years, Lego's "readership" has expanded across the globe to areas that may have other celebrations and views, and may not immediately get the "rationale" to these sets to begin with.

I pointed out on the CNY thread that the sets that Lego makes is specific to those who celebrate it and these same sets are apparently not really appealing to many outside of the target market.

[lifeinplastic]

Would it be too rebellious in the Winter Village thread to express a desire for an annual ‘Summer Village’ set as an attempt to revive the Paradisa theme? Asking for a friend.

[RichardGoring]

4 hours ago, lifeinplastic said:

Would it be too rebellious in the Winter Village thread to express a desire for an annual ‘Summer Village’ set as an attempt to revive the Paradisa theme? Asking for a friend.

They've already done it! They renamed it Friends, and it is, genuinely, the best overall theme in the LEGO portfolio.

 

[lifeinplastic]

38 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

They've already done it! They renamed it Friends, and it is, genuinely, the best overall theme in the LEGO portfolio.

 

Yes, Friends gets a lot of good stuff and parts but it isn’t confined to a summer vacation setting and no longer a pastel colour palate, so it isn’t the same as Paradisa. It’s effectively just Lego City with minidolls and animals that look like they wear make/up.

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, lifeinplastic said:

Yes, Friends gets a lot of good stuff and parts but it isn’t confined to a summer vacation setting and no longer a pastel colour palate, so it isn’t the same as Paradisa. It’s effectively just Lego City with minidolls and animals that look like they wear make/up.

It's so much better than LEGO City!

And if you live in a place of perpetual summer, you may occasionally want a vacation into somewhere cold and snowy.

The move from pastel shades is sometimes a bit of a shame, but time moves on, I suppose.

[lifeinplastic]

2 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

It's so much better than LEGO City!

And if you live in a place of perpetual summer, you may occasionally want a vacation into somewhere cold and snowy.

The move from pastel shades is sometimes a bit of a shame, but time moves on, I suppose.

I don’t disagree as such - I think the frustration is that Lego City could be as good or even better if, like Friends, they had a similar focus on leisure activities instead of regularly regurgitating police and fire sets (don’t get me started on the Formula 1 stuff) plus with a similar abundance of animals. It’s the minidolls and incompatible animals that make Friends so off putting for me and it certainly doesn’t evoke the same feeling for me at all as Paradisa did where I’d go out and buy the whole theme tomorrow if I could. Whereas I can go out and buy Friends sets right now but I don’t and wouldn’t really want to in 30 years time.

Edited November 20, 2025 by lifeinplastic

[Arstotle]

14 hours ago, lifeinplastic said:

Would it be too rebellious in the Winter Village thread to express a desire for an annual ‘Summer Village’ set as an attempt to revive the Paradisa theme? Asking for a friend.

I wouldn't be opposed if Lego tried something like that (not that they care what I think), but it's not something I would ever chase.  Summer seems to be almost the antithesis of Lego - it's the weather that invites you not to be inside building Lego sets...though it's never really stopped me.

As opposed to summer, I've always thought that Lego should do an autumn/Halloween village very akin to the Winter Village line.  The upcoming Autumn Garden set is interesting, and I think a WV-type line with autumn colors and various Halloween elements would do very, very well.  

[Arstotle]

Images of the second holiday GWP and the Lego employee gift are now circulating.

40778 - Winter Gazebo - has three minifigures, including a saxophone and a viola/bass.  Looks like it might be smaller than the gazebo that came with 10222, but still looks like a nice addition to the Winter Village

4002025 - not sure what the name of the set is, but it looks to be some sort of town set, featuring a toy shop and a post office.  Very nice set.  Far superior to the train we got for the WV this year.

[RichardGoring]

The Winter Gazebo looks lovely and will definitely look at getting it.

The employee gift is interesting. I'd like to see more of it to see the back half, but it feels like two different sets mashed together to form an unconvincing modular building. Sadly, lots of stickers, which will be exclusive, but hopefully no pieces that are, so it could be built up.

[Lion King]

Does anyone wish that Winter Village sets would have printed parts, rather than lame stickers?  I wonder why they never give us printed elements for a while. 

[lifeinplastic]

2 hours ago, Lion King said:

Does anyone wish that Winter Village sets would have printed parts, rather than lame stickers?  I wonder why they never give us printed elements for a while. 

Yes, I felt the Alpine Lodge was spoiled by the stickers sign. I never attach stickers in sets (stickers actually make me feel physically sick - apparently it’s called pittakionophobia), so my set felt very incomplete. I think Lego take the mickey by including stickers, particularly in sets over £100

[Lion King]

1 hour ago, lifeinplastic said:

Yes, I felt the Alpine Lodge was spoiled by the stickers sign. I never attach stickers in sets (stickers actually make me feel physically sick - apparently it’s called pittakionophobia), so my set felt very incomplete. I think Lego take the mickey by including stickers, particularly in sets over £100

Exactly. Even tho Alphonse Lodge jsut came out a few years ago, with the stickers, I feel like it’s an old set.  I got my first Winter Village - Santa’s Visit set - and I was disappointed to see a few stickers. I thought a printed elemtnat that depict a family portrait would be lovely and useful for MOCs.  Modular Building sets are the life saver. 

[Arstotle]

I'd be surprised if any Lego fan would prefer stickers to printed elements.  In my opinion, printed elements are always preferred. 

Several of the Chinese building brick companies are doing all printed elements in their sets, and some of those sets look really nice.  Perhaps in time this will bring enough pressure that Lego will move towards more/all printed elements.  But they get away with far too many stickers these days.

[lifeinplastic]

1 minute ago, Lion King said:

Exactly. Even tho Alphonse Lodge jsut came out a few years ago, with the stickers, I feel like it’s an old set.  I got my first Winter Village - Santa’s Visit set - and I was disappointed to see a few stickers. I thought a printed elemtnat that depict a family portrait would be lovely and useful for MOCs.  Modular Building sets are the life saver. 

I didn’t realise Santa’s visit had stickers - I bought it but haven’t ever opened it (I liked the idea of building it with kids of my own).

Yes, thank goodness for the lack of stickers in the Modular’s. Hoping we get some good printed pieces in the new one. I liked the sign for the Jazz Club .

5 minutes ago, Arstotle said:

I'd be surprised if any Lego fan would prefer stickers to printed elements.  In my opinion, printed elements are always preferred. 

Several of the Chinese building brick companies are doing all printed elements in their sets, and some of those sets look really nice.  Perhaps in time this will bring enough pressure that Lego will move towards more/all printed elements.  But they get away with far too many stickers these days.

I always leave negative comments about stickers when adding feedback if asked to fill in a survey visiting the Lego website!

[Siroco]

5 hours ago, Lion King said:

Does anyone wish that Winter Village sets would have printed parts, rather than lame stickers? 

I wish ALL lego sets would have printed parts, rather than lame stickers.

[RichardGoring]

Controversial point here. I like stickers in the winter village set. I build them with my children and they really like adding the stickers.

I understand the frustration and I'm not a huge fan on most of the icons sets, but I happily forgive them on sets for children, where they're not used in some kind of specific play feature.

[LegoDW]

Hello.  Just about ready to set up my families annual Lego Winter/Christmas Village.  Wife will only allow the display to be up 1 months so have to enjoy it.  This will be the first year in along time we are not getting the annual Lego Winter Village release.  Not getting partly due to already having multiple trains, family is not that excited about this years train and really just starting to run out of display room.  The unavailabity of the power up componets has also put a damper on things.  Kids still enjoy moterizing the trains and watching them run.  

This year we plan on incorporating the Theves of Tartuga into our display.  Yes Pirates are a bit of a streach, will put some snow on roof tops and let the kids use their imagination.  We are in the US and still waiting for our set to be delivered.  Hopefully will be here soon.  Yo-Ho-Ho-me harties, Merry Christmas.

[Lion King]

14 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Controversial point here. I like stickers in the winter village set. I build them with my children and they really like adding the stickers.

I understand the frustration and I'm not a huge fan on most of the icons sets, but I happily forgive them on sets for children, where they're not used in some kind of specific play feature.

Ew

[lifeinplastic]

2 hours ago, Lion King said:

Ew

Double ew! 

Edited November 22, 2025 by lifeinplastic

[Lion King]

It looks like the employee-only gift will be holiday-themed modular building and it’s a post office.  I wonder what it looks like. 

And I’m wondering if a holiday-themed modular building set will attract Winter Village AND modular building colelcotrs’ attention if that gift  is an official set?

[Robert8]

How come the employee gift is better than this years official WV set? 

[lifeinplastic]

4 hours ago, Robert8 said:

How come the employee gift is better than this years official WV set? 

The employees are the ones making the company lots of profit - us customers are just the idiots paying! 

[Lion King]

On 11/26/2025 at 3:12 PM, lifeinplastic said:

The employees are the ones making the company lots of profit - us customers are just the idiots paying! 

Well, I’m glad I’m not buying this year’s winter village set and that the employee’s gift was leaked. We will put Lego in hot water.