One of the new holiday sets that will be available from the beginning of October is the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set. LEGO was kind enough to send us an early copy so that we can take a closer look.
Let’s start with the official description: Count down to Christmas with the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set! This building set features evergreen leaf elements, signifying everlasting life, and has illustrated instructions to help create two beautiful decorative designs – one with a big, buildable red bow, another with four brick-built candles representing the four weeks of Advent. A fun, seasonal gift for ages 9 and up, it will add festive cheer to any home when hung on a wall, used as a table decoration or displayed any other way. This 510-piece set is great for solo building or sharing the fun with family and friends. It can be hung on a wall, used as a table decoration, or displayed any way the builder chooses. The Advent wreath measures over 9” (25cm) in diameter. The buildable candles measure over 3” (8cm) at full height but can be adjusted to smaller sizes to replicate the burning of a real candle.
The box of the Christmas Wreath set is the sturdier kind of LEGO boxes with a flip-up lid. The size of the box is just over 11×10 inches, which means that it can be used as a storage box for the wreath once it’s built. This is super handy if you want to use and display the set each holiday season.
Inside the box there are three sets of numbered bags, as well as two instructions booklets. The first instruction booklet provides the steps to build the hanging wreath with the big red bow, and the second instruction booklet includes steps for the wreath that can be used as table decoration with four candles and two small red bows.
You can start with either of the instruction books as they both provide steps to build the base ring, which is shared between the two models. In addition to the two designs, the second instruction book displays four more alternate models, which also share the same base. These models do not have separate step-by-step building instructions, but the pictures are large enough and clear enough that you should be able to copy them easily.
Model A is basically the same as the table decoration, but with the candles and small bows in a different configuration. I like how the candles are bunched together in this design.
Model B is a hanging wreath with a medium-sized red bow and the four candles placed flush with the wreath. This is a nice alternative to the first model if you would like to include the candles.
Model C is a simpler looking hanging wreath without using any of the red bows, red berries, or larger leaf elements. It’s main fun feature is the reindeer’s face centered at the top, made from one of the white candle tops, a couple of brown 1×2 plates with rounded edges, two trans-orange round plates for the eyes (used as candle fire in the other models), and two green leaf pieces for antlers.
Model D is also a hanging wreath that omits the larger leaf pieces, but it is more colorful than Model C with the red berries and a differently designed big red bow added.
It’s hard for me to decide which of the six models I like the most, but I think I prefer the ones that are fuller with using both the smaller and larger leaves. And I like the splash of color added by the berries, bows, and candle fires. But I also appreciate the simplicity of other models. And this is the beauty of this set; you can build the wreath in at least six different ways, and of course you can also make up your own design. There are plenty of pieces to play with!
Speaking of pieces, this is probably the best set for getting tons of pieces for vegetation! You get 40 green 1×1 round plates with three leaves, 4 bright-green plant stems with three leaves, 6 brown carrot tops, 36 of the traditional 3×4 leaves in green, and 2 of the 3×8 large palm leaves. You also get enough pieces to build four full candles so you can make them all the same height, or omit some of the 2×2 round bricks to make some of them shorter. And you get plenty of red pieces to build the three styles of the big bow, the two small bows, or your own designs. And there is also a small string element with studs at both ends to hang up the hanging versions of the wreath.
As I mentioned above, all six models use the same base, which is built from the two #1 bags. The base is structured from sixteen segments that clip together with 1×4 hinge bricks. One of the segments is special as it incorporates the string, but the other 15 are identical. It’s a little boring to build the same thing so many times, but fortunately each segment is made from only 13 pieces so they don’t take that long to assemble. Plus, you only have to build the base once before the fun of decorating can begin!
The base also has quite a few useful pieces, including sixteen 1×4 bricks in nougat, sixteen 1×4 hinge bricks, thirty-two 2×4 dark-tan brackets, and a good selection of dark-green pieces. Other parts worth mentioning are the pearl-gold 1×4 round bricks with five petals, and of course the white and red balls used as berries.
The #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set may not be as cute as a gingerbread house or holiday train or as fun as the Advent Calendars, but I still think it’s one of the best holiday sets ever released. It is fun to build and decorate either alone or with family and friends, it comes with several alternate building options, so you can display it differently each year, and it is one of the best sets to use as a “real” holiday decoration. And, as I mentioned, it’s one of the best ways to get a whole bunch of plant pieces at one go. At only 6.8 cents apiece, it’s totally worth it.
If you want to build your own wreath, or you just want to get the pieces for your own projects, the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set is going to be available on October 1st at the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the Christmas Wreath? Is this a set you’re planning to get? And how do you like the different alternate builds? Do you have a favorite? Would you use this as a decoration for the holidays? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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Wow. This is nice. Finally a set that doesn’t costs hundreds of dollars, looks nice and is useful for parts.
Good point! Thanks to a couple of bonus packs earlier this year I was able to use a few parts as palm fronds to make a palm tree, but that leaves my Lego city with only one palm tree! I need more palm fronds! 😀
Ha! Nice set! I was just thinking the other day that I needed some leaves to make more trees!
I will definitely pick this up. Probably multiplies. Thanks for including a picture of the parts list. That really helps.
How sturdily the leavesand other decorations attached? Any worries of them falling off?
They are attached securely. I didn’t have any issues with them. Obviously if someone handles it roughly or brushes against it, some pieces may fall off. But this is the case with a normal wreath too. 🙂
Looks great. It’s probably a lot easier to put together then actually have to make a real one. I did that for awhile in a agriculture program in high school.
I need this set for the plant parts. Another good set for plants is the Ideas Barracuda Bay. It has several palm trees and other plants. BUt it’s expensive.
Thanks for posting about this. I plan to get this as soon as it’s available. I even have some vip points for it!
Can you join 2 kits together to make a larger wreathed or does the curved shapes distort the circle. Thanks
Helen, good question! The angled plates used for the wrath make a fixed circle, so doubling the set won’t make the circle larger without some significant modification.
question regarding the optional models; model b specifically…are there photos or instructions for this model? I am struggling with getting this together. thank you.
Rose, which part of it are you struggling with? The base is the same as the main model. Ony the decorations are different.
I am also struggling with the decorations, some help would be appreciated!
Im also struggling with the model B. Did you find any instructions?
I’m also struggling to create the image B. The bow and how to attach the candles. I followed the instructions for the standard wreath but I just can’t work out how to have the candles vertical. Any help gratefully received
Thank you!
Rebecca, the bottom and top vertical candles are attached with the two red brackets.
The two on the left and rides sides use one of each of the 1×2 black plates with the little vertical bar (eight included in the set). The bar is pushed inside one of the openings of the 1×2 red brick with two open studs on the side. This red brick is somewhat hidden under the 1×2 green sloped elements that secure it to the wreath. But if you look at the image closely in the instructions, you will see that that the red brick is attached upside down, so the two holes face the bottom of the wreath, and the little bar is pushed into one of them. A second standard 1×2 plate in red finishes the bottom of the candle.
I hope that’s clear enough so you can follow it. If there are any other questions, just let me know.
How do you do wreath B the top and bottom candles
Please help
Raina, I already answered this question, just above. Hope that helps:
The two on the left and rides sides use one of each of the 1×2 black plates with the little vertical bar (eight included in the set). The bar is pushed inside one of the openings of the 1×2 red brick with two open studs on the side. This red brick is somewhat hidden under the 1×2 green sloped elements that secure it to the wreath. But if you look at the image closely in the instructions, you will see that that the red brick is attached upside down, so the two holes face the bottom of the wreath, and the little bar is pushed into one of them. A second standard 1×2 plate in red finishes the bottom of the candle.
Hi, the top and bottom candle is where I am having trouble with…how are they attached to the bow… unless the bow isn’t attached to the candle.
I get the right and left candle.
Raina, those candles are attached with the red L-shaped brackets. Two of them are included in the set.
Thanks for the help! Using those 2 red L-shaped brackets means that they have to come off of the wreath segment itself (which is where they are in the base wreath design), right? I replaced them with two green, smaller L-brackets but that leaving a blank row to be covered up by the 3 green flat pieces in each of the wreath segments. Is that how you handled?
EDIT: figured it out. the base wreath designs at the hook are different. Missed that in light of all the comments that said the base design with same on wreath.
Awesome! 😀
It looks like the pieces used for the top and bottom candle (for the B wreath) are needed in like step 1 of making the actual wreath. So using them for the candles is not an option?
The red brackets could be removed from the wreath base as they don’t really serve any purpose in model B in their original position. Just replace them with a regular 2×4 plate, or equivalent to fill the gap.
I took your advice for the red L bracket. It does serve a purpose because it adds stability when you hang since the Load is on that first part of the wreath. So what I did to replace those red L brackets I used the 1×1 black L brackets.
Hope that helps too.
Yes! That’s a great solution! 🙂
Does anyone have directions for Option D? Looks adorable but can’t figure it out. ☹️
Jennifer, what part of that design do you have trouble with?