Deck the Halls with Balls of LEGO

Have you ever considered decorating a Christmas tree using only brick-built LEGO ornaments? With BrickNerd being a Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM), we sometimes get to bring ideas like that into reality by leveraging support like the LEGO Pick-a-Brick support program. (You may remember such grand project ideas as building Mega Nerdly.)

My idea for a support order this year was, you guessed it, to decorate an entire Christmas tree using LEGO ornaments. This tree would be donated and displayed at an annual fundraiser called the “Festival of Trees and Lights” here in Louisville, Kentucky (USA). The fundraiser supports Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, whose mission is to:

“… serve all families regardless of their ability to pay. As part of a not-for-profit organization, Norton Children’s facilities rely on the generosity of the community to help fulfill our mission to provide for the physical and emotional health of children, from birth to adulthood. It takes the generosity of everyone in the community to enable Norton Children’s to be here for all children when they need us.”

Norton Children’s Hospital NICU equipment set-up, displayed during the Festival of Trees and Lights

The festival itself is a three-day event held in mid-November at Louisville Slugger Field (home to the Louisville Bats minor-league baseball team). The interior hallways and atrium of the stadium are transformed into a winter holiday village, decorated with Christmas trees and Hannukah lights, as well as various displays, vendors, and play areas for the kids. Money is raised through event tickets, sales at various vendor booths, and a silent auction of donated Christmas trees, wreaths, etc.

As much as I knew about the Festival of Trees and Lights, there was even more that I did not know… Who provides the trees for us to decorate? Where do we pick them up? When do we decorate them? What are the logistics for set-up? Before committing to this idea, I reached out to my friend Nate Tanner who had connections with some festival organizers would might know the answers.

Overhead View of the Atrium - Festival of Trees and Lights

The Plan

Nate was able to get answers to many of our questions about the logistics. The festival would provide us with 3 ft tall artificial trees to decorate. He also coordinated with the Louisville Bricks and Minifigs store, who would provide us with additional donated LEGO to make ornaments with, as well as a place to build them with other “GLou LUG” members and friends.

Working backward from the festival set-up date, we laid out our timeline:

Nov. 2nd (Saturday): Meet at the Louisville Bricks and Minifigs store to build the ornaments (BAM is also donating parts to make ornaments).

Nov. 9th (Saturday): BrickConvention was coming back to Louisville. If we needed more building time, we could get volunteers to help us finish building ornaments during the show.

Nov. 12th (Tuesday): Tree display set-up at the venue (Louisville Slugger Field).

Nov. 14th (Thursday): Preview party for everyone who contributed to the event.

Nov. 15th-17th: The Festival of Trees and Lights is open to the public (...and afterward, our donated tree then goes home with the winner of the silent auction).

So this plan would all hinge upon our PaB support order being delivered to us before November 2nd. The only thing left now was for me to determine what ornaments we would build so we could place the order.

The Parts

After conferring with our Nerd-in-Chief Dave Schefcik, we decided it would be easiest for us to select one of the standard LEGO set ornament designs to order and vary the part colors. Doing this would also demonstrate how people could use LEGO.com’s Pick-a-Brick to source the parts needed to build retired sets. We selected the GWP Ornament set designed by none other than Chris McVeigh. I thought his design would make for a great introduction to SNOT techniques, should some of the inexperienced builders in our local group participate.

For the tree star, Dave recommended the star design that Jason Allemann (aka JK Brickworks) created and provided instructions.

tree star design by Jason Allemann (aka JK Brickworks)

With the ornament and star designs finalized, I then had to determine the LEGO part numbers for each individual piece and confirm they could be found on Pick-a-Brick so that we could place the order. The order was submitted at the end of August for enough parts to make 60 ornaments and the star. And then we waited... and waited…

By the end of September, we reached out to check the status and were told some bad news; at that time, PaB project orders were running on a 10-week delay. Having already committed to participating in the festival, we would need to come up with a backup plan.

In the end, I decided to just place a part order myself via BrickLink on behalf of BrickNerd. I modified the ornament design to take advantage of some parts I already had on hand, and I received the international order within a week (thanks DD Bricks!). Crisis averted. We will just have to postpone our experiment on using PaB project support to build ornaments for another day… or for a less time-sensitive endeavor.

The Build

Having received the order, I needed to confirm the contents and that all of the parts were there. As I was counting the parts, I thought to myself “Heck, while I am counting, I might as well start building these.” Then a few weeks later during our October “Nerd-Out with BrickNerd” Patron Zoom call, I thought to myself “Heck, while I am sitting here, I might as well build a few more of these.” By the time our build meet-up at BaM arrived on November 2nd, I had already built all 60 ornaments. Whoops.

One of the people In this photo was building LEGO chirstmas Ornaments in OCtober…

I met with Nate at BaM, and he brought over one of the donated trees for us to decorate to see how the tree would look decorated. We set up the tree on a table in one of the back rooms, and yep, it looked good.

Decorated tree, with a cameo of the NEW LEGO Santa ornament designed by Maddison Stapleton

Afterwards Nate set up a building table outside where kids could help build ornaments out of the donated bricks that BaM provided. They had provided all of the parts needed to build different color variations of the “Blizzard” ornament from Chris McVeigh’s ornament design books.

By the end of the day, we had collected enough donated ornaments to decorate two of the 3 ft tall trees.

Setting Up the Display

Two weeks later, the day of display set-up finally arrived. I met up with Nate at the stadium to register our trees at check-in, and then we carted in our display.

From the check-in table, we were directed to the back atrium of the stadium where all of the donated trees would be displayed.

This was my first time having been to the Festival of Trees and Lights, and I found it very reminiscent to the set up at a LEGO convention; rearranging tables, making sure you had electrical power, planning for a sitting area behind your display, tablecloths to hide all the things stored underneath them, etc.

We set up our trees, as well as a small train layout using various LEGO Christmas sets. Nate planned to have his Christmas trolley car run around the village circuit during the entire three-day public event.

Nate Tanner in front of Our Display Area during set-up

Holiday Magic

The night before the official event began we were treated to a preview party. This was an opportunity for everyone who had helped decorate, donate, and volunteer to see the completed event space first and lit in wonder. It was magical event, and a wonderful way to kick off the entire holiday season. Below is a picture of how our finished LEGO display area looked once the final decorations were added.

Our finished display Space during the Prevew Party

Although I prefer not to see Christmas decorations placed out so early and well before the Thanksgiving (US) holiday, I guess exceptions can always be made for a good cause. Participating in this event lifted our spirits, soothed our souls, and, most importantly, helped raise money to support children and families with medical needs.

… And I can confirm that it is definitely better to give than to receive… believe it or not, even if it’s LEGO.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The line-up of other small trees donated to the festival of trees and lights

Do you decorate for Christmas using LEGO ornaments? Let us know in the comments below.

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