Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published December 20, 2022 with updates from this year’s gift.

There is no way to measure how much joy LEGO gifts bring to those that receive them for the holidays. But what about the LEGO elves (aka employees) that work year-round creating wonderful LEGO products? Join BrickNerd as we take a look at each and every exclusive LEGO employee holiday gift.

Humble Holiday Beginnings

2009: Heart

LEGO employees have received sets for the holidays for the past fourteen years. This tradition got off to a very modest start in 2009 with a boxed heart model (following a year of the same set in polybag form). Perhaps it was a way of The LEGO Group (TLG) saying “We <3 U” to all its workers.

The size of the employee gift models varied significantly in the early years, but since then have become more standardized with a more substantial size.

2010: Happy Holidays - The Christmas Game

2010 saw the arrival of the Happy Holidays Christmas Game which included 139 pieces. This set was given out to celebrate the heyday of the LEGO Games theme. I don’t have any specifics on the actual game, but it features comically cute brick-built reindeer.

Also included is the notable and customizable LEGO die. I remember hearing that at the time, the mold for this element was the most complex and expensive LEGO mold ever created. It was quite the feat to have the red ABS core overmolded with a softer rubber cushion (for sound deadening). All these years later I wonder if it has been eclipsed by a yet more complex mold? Perhaps the Dots cube?

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

2011: LEGO Duck

The iconic LEGO wooden duck is certainly a worthy subject of an employee gift. This holiday gift version of the LEGO duck from 2011 had rolling wheels and a small pull string just like its wooden predecessor, but the duckbill was fixed in place with no motion. LEGO sets have certainly progressed over the years, and this version pales in comparison to the LEGO House exclusive (set 40501), both in size and function.

2012: Ole Kirk’s House

Ole Kirk’s House (AKA the Lion House) was originally issued as the 2009 LEGO Inside Tour (LIT) exclusive set. This re-released version from 2012 was assigned set number 4000007. The original LEGO factory and carpentry shop is certainly a good subject for an employee gift since the house still exists in the heart of Billund, complete with lions guarding the door. A portion of the current LEGO Idea House is located within this historic structure along with the memorable LEGO Vault located beneath the building’s foundations. This is also the only holiday employee exclusive to come with a baseplate and the first to include stickers.

2013: A LEGO Christmas Tale

Perhaps the most notable aspect of 2013’s holiday model is that it marked the beginning of a new employee gift numbering standard, that being the number 40000 which LEGO uses for non-retail exclusive sets followed by the two-digit year. (The following years would shift to using the full four-digit year.)

This Christmas Tale set features a couple of modest holiday vignette scenes featuring figures made from minifigure heads on stubby little bodies… also made from minifigure heads. It also was one of the first sets to include a minifigure Santa’s hat after it appeared first in a collectible minifigure.

2014: LEGO HUB Birds

Departing from the holiday theme, I’ve always assumed 2014’s LEGO HUB Birds was intended to be a companion set to the LEGO Ideas Birds set 21301. I have wondered if these were sketch models developed before the Ideas set design was finalized.

But digging a little deeper, I learned that the five birds represent the five different LEGO hubs around the world:

Bald Eagle for The United States of America
Robin for The United Kingdom
Crimson Sunbird for Singapore
Crane for China
Swan for Denmark

2015: Borkum Riffgrund 1

The 2015 holiday set was issued to commemorate the opening of the Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Germany. This first phase of the wind farm (of three phases planned) is partially owned by KIRKBI (the holding company owned by LEGO’s founding family).

The set represented TLG’s corporate commitment to utilizing clean energy and depicts a specialized ship that can deploy extendable legs down to the seabed for use as a stable platform to assemble offshore wind turbines. The model uses a rack and pinion mechanism to lower the four legs concurrently. It also resembles the re-released Vestas Wind Turbine set.

The Bigger The Better

2016: 50 Years on Track

LEGO employee holiday gifts started to get more sizeable from 2016 onward with the first 1,000-piece model. The 50 Years on Track set celebrated all the iconic LEGO train and monorail sets that came before it from Space to the Winter Village. There are actually six individual mini-replicas depicting various train models throughout the years. The models have a cute, stubby appearance, but very clearly depict the original subjects.

On the front of the box, there is a photo of Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen with a young girl comparing the Emerald Night models. This photo replicates a photo of his father Godtfred Kirk looking at a LEGO train with a young boy shown on the back of the box. I like these little historical nods, and they are especially appropriate for employee gifts. The front of the box has an additional history lesson, with the current LEGO logo and the version from 50 years prior.

2017: Nutcracker

The Technic Nutcracker from 2017 is perhaps my favorite among the many LEGO employee gift sets. It is such a recognizable subject presented at such an impressive scale! The Nutcracker celebrates both the company’s 85th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of Technic.

There is extensive use of Technic elements, including a few Technic beams in an exclusive color that have never been released since. There is also a Technic mechanism to operate the movable jaw. While not strong enough to crack open real nuts, I wouldn’t put my finger in the open mouth!

As you can see, this model comes in one of the more unusually shaped boxes LEGO has produced. The assembled model fits nicely in the box after assembly making it appear like a guard house of sorts. Well done LEGO!

2018: Santa and Reindeer

The 2018 model celebrates the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure. It features Santa, his sleigh and a reindeer, all built at a very unusual scale. Santa’s face is four studs wide, and each leg is three studs wide. I don’t recall another released set at this 3X scale (though larger-scale minifigures in wood have been released since). The scale is certainly much bigger than an actual minifigure and is also larger than LEGOLAND miniland scale figures. Perhaps it could best be categorized as a small sculptural scale. There are also three gift boxes that each contain a minifigure from a different era. It’s surprising that it took nine years for actual LEGO minifigures to be included in the employee gift!

This set was also notable for not including an actual photo of the model on the front of the box. The cartoon artwork hints at the model inside, but you would need to look at the back of the box for more clarity.

Theme Takeover

2019: Christmas X-wing

LEGO continued to honor significant anniversaries of its themes in 2019 with the 20th anniversary of the LEGO Star Wars theme. As you might imagine, this Christmas X-wing is one of the most popular employee gifts on the secondary market. For LEGO Star Wars collectors, the set is a must-have because it includes an exclusive Santa pilot minifigure with unique torso print and leg prints—an instantly rare figure and the bane of both Star Wars and Winter Village completionists currently selling for $500.

A simple re-skin of the retail X-wing set, another fun aspect of this model is that Yoda’s hut functions as a display stand for the Christmas X-wing and that the box was made larger so the model could be stored inside it in built form.

2020: 40 Years of Hands-On Learning

The year 2020 was marred by the worldwide pandemic, but LEGO gave its employees a holiday gift nonetheless! The set was Santa’s workshop with moving elves as they create their toys (just like LEGO employees!). The set came in four modules that aree packaged separately, and each has its own instruction book so families can build it together.

The front of the box again does not showcase the set opting for stylized artwork—if I just saw this set on its own, I wouldn’t easily know that it honors LEGO Education’s 40th anniversary (the printed panel on the back is our best clue). The Technic elements and Elves hint at what might be inside, and the photo on the back depicts the actual model.

Each of the four instruction books has an explanation about the mechanism for that module (similar to the Master Builder Academy instruction books). I can speak from experience that it is fun to play with demonstrate the engineering functions of the various mechanisms. (FYI, the model also celebrates the dual anniversary of 50 years since the introduction of the universal LEGO gearwheel.) In addition to all the brick-built Elves and gifts, I like the minifigure Elf on a shelf next to a mini Mindstorms NXT brick.

2021: The Temple of Celebrations

The Temple of Celebrations set from 2021 recognized the 10th anniversary of the Ninjago theme. (I think it’s terrific how LEGO has created such a successful non-IP theme.) Besides a wonderful temple and dragon pulling a sleigh, there are a whopping twelve minifigures in this set! Included are all of the Golden Ninjas you could collect from the entire anniversary wave including the Golden Sensei Wu which is only available in Ninjago City Gardens. I like how the temple model and various accessories convey a more wintery holiday scene and how the designers purposefully didn’t use any exclusive elements, minifigures or stickers so anyone could build the model out of their own collection if they didn’t have access to the official set.

This employee set also had the honor of featuring the first (partial) appearance of new numbered paper bags for parts. These paper bags will eventually replace all plastic bags within set boxes with the first paper bags showing up in limited retail sets from 2022 onward.

2022: 10 Years of Friendship

Arriving at the most recent LEGO employee holiday gift, the set celebrates 10 years of the Friends theme and offers a fond farewell to the original cast of characters. The five Friends have all grown up and gone off on their own adventures (sunrise, sunset…). The new cast of eight Friends characters has been revealed in recent months, and LEGO took the opportunity to depict even greater diversity within this community.

The set features a fireplace which at first glance looks a little plain. But many opinions were warmed when the back of the box revealed hidden displays and mini-dolls. There are five exclusive versions of the core characters, as well as a new Santa mini-doll that only appears in this year’s Friends Advent Calendar. Interestingly, there are eight stockings on the mantle, perhaps a subtle way to welcome the new lineup of Friends into Heartlake City.

2023: Gingerbread house advent calendar

The 2023 employee gift was a collection of four customizable Gingerbread houses. Each house has a different front facade, adding a nice variety when lined up to create a small street scene. There are four separate instruction books to encourage families or small groups to build together. The studs out plates on the front of the buildings facilitates customizable gingerbread decorations you can decorate with Dots tiles.

But all of this fanciful decorating is concealing the 24 compartments accessible from the back, each containing a fun small LEGO build! The 24 models are all themed to relate to The LEGO Group history. No specific spoilers here, but there just might be some microscale versions of iconic products, and references to the owner family and Billund landmarks!

The Best Secret Santa Ever

These LEGO employee holiday sets have quickly turned into a wonderful Christmas tradition for many people around the world. LEGO is very generous to give these exclusive sets away to its employees, including retail and factory workers. LEGO even gives one of these sets to its fan community LAN ambassadors as a token of appreciation each year.

Interestingly, while we were preparing this article for BrickNerd, LEGO posted a photo of all the employee sets together in the LEGO Idea House. Apparently, we’re not the only ones that think the employee gift sets are wonderful. LEGO is using them as a recruiting tool showing two employees—one tenured and one brand new, enticing applicants with the exclusive sets. The post goes on to say the following:

“Every holiday season, LEGO colleagues get treated with a unique LEGO set made exclusively for employees – a tradition since 2009! A small cross-functional team works on this top-secret project for a whole year until it’s finally revealed in November.”

Wrapping Things Up (Before Unwrapping Them on Christmas!)

While I was attending the LEGO Inside Tour, one of our guides was asked about the employee gifts she receives: “Do you build them, keep them sealed, or sell them?” She replied that she kept hers sealed and stored in her parent’s attic as part of her “retirement savings”. But then she commented that she could understand why some employees would sell the sets. The aftermarket prices for some of them might equal several weeks’ pay for employees in various countries (Mexico, Czech Republic, etc.) which makes the gift almost like a holiday bonus.

No matter if you build them, store them or sell them, LEGO employee holiday gifts are such an amazing tradition. I wonder what the next few years will bring with many more significant anniversaries on the way or if LEGO will find new milestones to celebrate. Perhaps we will even see a theme repeat (maybe the 50th anniversary of Technic in 2027?). But no matter what subject is chosen, these unique gifts will continue to be highly anticipated each year by employees and fans alike. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Which LEGO employee holiday gift is your favorite set? Let us know in the comments below.

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