That's right, Cleveland's own Christmas Story House could become an official LEGO set, and you can help make it happen!
As of today, more than 6,300 people have supported the “A Christmas Story” house set on the LEGO Ideas website. It needs 10,000 votes to be submitted for approval from LEGO, then it could become available in stores.
The LEGO Christmas Story House design was created by Jason Middaugh and his 8 year old daughter Jane. We had an opportunity to ask Jason a few questions about his creation and find out how we can help get the house made into an offical LEGO set.
Why did you decide to build The Christmas Story House out of LEGO?
A couple years ago, I pulled out all of my old LEGO sets that I had when I was a kid. Jane had just become of age to really enjoy them, and I thought that a great Christmas gift for her would be to design our little lake cottage out of LEGOs and give her the pieces and instructions for it for Christmas. It was a hit and it turned out a lot better than we had expected.
My wife, Tina, encouraged me to send it in to LEGO, but I did not think that anyone would really be interested in our little summer place. However, it did get me thinking to decide on what I thought the perfect LEGO set would be, and my mind instantly went to the house from A Christmas Story! It is such a national iconic landmark, and the response that we have gotten thus far has really proven that.
How long did it take you to design and build The LEGO Christmas Story House?
We built the initial version of the model out of all different colored bricks that we had, and it actually looked pretty funny. That process took just a couple of weeks to work out the structure and layout. Then the hard part began. Collecting the pieces and tweaking the model took another 6 months (on and off).
In the meantime, I did some research to understand that LEGO actually has this formal process for submitting an idea. We started ordering the pieces for the set in April of last year, and when it was complete with all of the pictures, we submitted it in October.
What is your favorite part of The LEGO Christmas Story House?
I knew that it needed a few unique features to set it apart. and these became some of my favorite parts. I thought that even though it was not seen in the movie, I wanted it to have a furnace behind the corner door in the kitchen. Also, I wanted to come up with a creative way to represent the snow on the house.
One of the last touches was actually lighting up the leg lamp. This was probably the biggest challenge because it needed to be made all from existing LEGO pieces without disturbing the layout of the house, and the switch needed to be accessible, but not visible. Once that finishing touch was complete, I knew that we were ready to send it in!
Can we see the LEGO Christmas Story House in person?
Yes, you can. Last month, we officially donated the prototype to the The Christmas Story House & Museum’s permanent collection, along with a few other fun LEGO scenes from the movie.
A Christmas Story House & Museum
3159 W 11th St. Cleveland, OH 44109
(216) 298-4919
Website
How can we help turn The LEGO Christmas Story House into an offical LEGO?
It turns out that LEGO has a formal process for submitting ideas, and we must first collect 10,000 supporters on the LEGO site to send the project to official LEGO review. I am happy to say that today we have over 6000 of those supporters, and every day this project is becoming closer to being a reality.
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