With the holidays rapidly approaching, I thought we´d take a look at one of the more recognizable characters from the holiday season, the big guy himself, Santa. My wife loves collecting different types of Santas, so this year I decided to build her one. Now, there are of course, a lot of different ways you can build old Saint Nick; you can go for something classy, or perhaps a beautiful scene with him sitting by the fireplace. I decided on… something else…

Usually, before I start building, I like to do some research to see what else is out there on the great big interweb. While searching for “LEGO Santa“ on Flickr, I realized there are a ton of fantastic Santas out there, and a lot of them both brilliant and hilarious. So I figured, why not share this with you guys? After all, the holidays are nearly here so if you´re looking for some inspiration for building your on holiday ornament depicting the main guy himself, go ahead and be inspired (I know I was!).

Let´s start things off with this wonderful creation from byKNAP. It makes brilliant use of the magnifying glass to give the eyes a slightly devious look. The oversized torso also adds to giving this guy a “you better be nice…“ appearence.

From the same builder, we also find a slightly different take on the Christmas spirit… I love how expressive the eyes are, making good use of the Apollo studs for that “empty“ look.

But let´s move along to something a bit more light. After all, after an intense night of handing out presents, I imagine Santa would love to relax on the beach. Like shown here in this hilarious build by yu chris.

Going for a more traditional look, the talented Koen Zwanenburg made this build to celebrate the holiday season. The oversized eyes along with overall magnificent use of rather large and chunky pieces makes for a stunning looking Santa.

If you don´t have the time, or the pieces, to go big, there a plenty of examples of great Santas that are of a smaller scale. Like this one from Jens Ohrndorf. Jens has a wide variety of great builds, but I´m particularily fond of his “slightly-bigger-than minifig-brickbuilt-minifigs”.

Going for a more modern look, Joffre Bricks made this absolutely hilarious version. The chunky hands, the posing, and the whole idea of Santa playing videogames are all just amazing and definately put a smile on my face. After all, isn´t that what the holidays are all about? Smiling, not videogames, just to be clear…

Fellow Swede (and LEGO Masters winner, and currently displaying in the masterpiece gallery) Rickard Stensby is a master of funny facial expressions on LEGO. A few years ago he made this fantastic little Santa. I just love the slight offset of the eyes, as well as the dumbfounded look and oversized feet. It´s a great example that you don´t need a lot of pieces to create something great.

Speaking of a guy who doesn´t need many pieces to make something great, BrickNerd´s very own Dan Ko recently made this beauty out of a kayak. As always, each piece is used to perfection and that little reindeer is just the icing on the cake.

Dan Ko also made this more action-inspired version of Saint Nick. I mean, you tell me you don´t hear the Mission Impossible soundtrack when looking at this build. If I´m not mistaken, I believe Dan Ko made this during one of his many rounds of Iron Builder, so make sure you check out the fireplace and the ornament above it for some crazy NPU.

If we take a turn towards something a bit darker, fellow BrickNerd Miro Dudas made this wonderful and somewhat scary Christmas ornament—perhaps because it is more realistic. As with a lot of the builds above, the eyes really help sell this whole build.

In a galaxy far, far away, they also seem to be celebrating Christmas. At least on the forest moon of Endor. And at least according to Joffre Brick.

I´m personally also convinced that Christmas is celebrated in a lot of places in the galaxy, especially those far, far away. I mean, why else would LEGO continue to come out with the Star Wars Christmas Advent Calendar each year?

Jumping into something significantly more traditional, Eero Okkonen made this stunning depiction of Father Christmas. As always with Eero, the shaping of the character is flawless and the face holds quite a bit of expression using a multitude of interesting pieces.

Moving away from the traditional and more towards the hilarious again, aido k treats us to this great build showing off both Santa as well as his trusty steed. The posing and facial expression on both characters really bring the scene to life.

Speaking of posing, this version of Father Christmas by Joffre Bricks is… striking, to say the least. I´d imagine making gifts for billions of kids and then delivering them during one night would require some pretty impressive physique…

And we couldn´t really show you a bunch of santas without including this one on Nerdly himself, built by Minifignick. Thanks Nick!

Scaling things up a bit again, this wonderful creation by DOGOD Brick Design has one of the most awesome facial expressions of all time. I mean it´s joy, surprise, perhaps even a slight panic. I just love it.

From the same builder we´ll also include this stunning depiction of Mike from Monsters Inc. in dressed like Santa.

Sarah Beyer made this great little Santa hanging out with his loyal companion, a cat. The slight tilt of the head (and again the eyes) is what gives this build its character. Perhaps he´s a little annoyed the porridge is too cold?

Rounding this Santa army out is this amazing creation by Olov Wingård. The expression with the eyes and eyebrows is just perfect. Olov was also kind enough to share instructions to this stunning build a few years ago—as a Christmas present if I remember correctly. Just like Santa himself… wait a second…is Olov..?

Thanks again for joining me on this journey exploring different types of Santas from our wonderful community. If you have some other favourites, or of you made one yourself, feel free to drop a link in the comments for others to enjoy. Take care, and Merry Christmas to each and every one!

Have you tried building a LEGO Santa? Or are you more of a Grinch fan? Leave your thoughts below.

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