The Best New LEGO Sets You’ll Want to Snag for the Holidays

Get the littlest family member their very first LEGO gift with this cute new Duplo set age-graded for 18 months and up. The 39 pieces include a tractor as well as giant, smiling vegetables and fruits like a carrot and pineapple. There are also bricks meant to represent the larger ecosystem — like sunshine, a rain cloud, seeds, and a farmer. Randomly, there’s also a whale, billed as a bonus. (Ah, okay?!) The chunky pieces are made for toddler hands.

This is on our list of the Hottest Toys of 2023 because it’s such a popular playset for preschoolers. Granted, you as the parent or caretaker are likely going to be doing the main build, which can be one of two kinds of houses or a set of two smaller dwellings. But then your kid will stay entertained decorating with the furniture; finding things for the five people, cat, and dog to do; playing with the car; creating a garden; and more. There’s so much role-playing value for preschoolers in this one set!

How cute is this set for beginning builders? There’s a car and camper van, and not just Mickey and Minnie but also their cute dog, Pluto. Kids can pretend they’re out in the woods with a little campfire and marshmallow on a stick.

Count down the December days to Christmas with this year’s holiday-themed LEGO Advent calendar. The 258 pieces include eight mini figurines such as Santa and Mrs. Claus, an ice hockey player, and a snowman. Each day your kid opens a panel to reveal a fun little surprise!

The DreamZzz sets are pure fantasy scenarios based on the LEGO DreamZzz show that streams on Netflix. The show takes place in the Dream Realm, so the sets are as trippy as you might expect. In this case, the vehicle can roll on wheels, crawl on turtle legs, or become a flying submarine, and the cat character is also a cactus. If none of that made sense to you, that’s OK! If your kid watches the show, this will all make sense to them and the set will be a hit.

This little set is a big bargain! It comes with two LEGO Friends figures, a bunny, and a little pancake shop. (Well, it’s a creperie, but our kids mostly know them as pancakes!) I love that there’s a wheelchair in this set as well as an adorable mixing bowl and even LEGO food. It’s both a great present by itself as well as a delightful stocking stuffer.

It’s easy for siblings, friends, and cousins to play with this massive set together because there’s so much going on, both on and off the slopes. The eight mini figures can ski, snowboard, ice skate, wall-climb and visit the inside of the chalet to rent other equipment or have some hot chocolate. There’s even a helmet for whoever rides the motorbike and a snow tube, too — kids can live out all their sports fantasies while they wait for the chance to go out and play in the snow for real. We love this set so much that it’s also on our guide to the year’s hottest toys.

It may be too early to tell if your kid will love the new Disney Wish movie, out November 22, but considering it’s by the team that did Frozen, we’re betting that it’ll be a hit. You can get ahead of the curve with this set that includes Asha, her enchanted star, her mother, and her grandfather all with their charming cottage, which has a wing that swings open on hinges. It has a little more than 500 pieces, making it an ambitious-enough set for ages 7 and up.

This wintery set is a little glamping dreamscape with an igloo, outdoor twinkle lights, a fire table, and a sled pulled by two cute dogs. (Wait, how do we go there in real life?) It comes with three LEGO Friends figures and a ton of cute accessories (a lava lamp! A camera!) for 491 pieces all together.

I’m out of my depth here trying to talk about Super Mario, but I know a hot LEGO set when I see one. There’s a new return-to-its-roots Super Mario RPG game releasing November 17 that will be on the wish list of a lot of kids who play via Nintendo Switch, so this LEGO set is a fantastic screen-free gift. It’s an expansion pack and meant to be a companion set to the Lego Mario Starter Course that’s been out for awhile, but it still has lots of adventure by itself — plus, it includes Mario himself. If your elementary-age kid is deep into the world of Mario, they will be thrilled.

This is so wacky and fun that there was no way of leaving it off the list. It’s a scene from Star Wars, but reimagined so that Chewbacca, Rey, and Finn are enjoying a turkey dinner aboard the Millennium Falcon, under festive holiday lights. Your 8-year-old might just take it at face value, but give it to your partner who studies the Star Wars Universe and you’ll get some hearty guffaws. Or maybe build it and leave it out in the living room to see if guests work up the nerve to ask what is going on here!

For serious Star Wars fans ages 10+, especially devotees of the Ashoka series, this is the puzzle to get for 2023. It’s a 164-piece build of the plucky, fearless, and wise Ashoka Tano with her lightsabers, perfect for building then displaying on a shelf. “I am no Jedi,” she says — but we know the Force is strong in this one.

For those with space and budget, this LEGO version of a natural history museum includes a set of dinosaur bones, a model of the planets, a telescope, and, outside on the sidewalk, some pigeons. Add this to an ongoing LEGO village or make this a one-off that the whole family can build together. It’s age-graded for 18+ and has a little over 4,000 pieces, so if the kids are joining you as a big family project, you’ll definitely want to guide them.

There couldn’t be a list of 2023 LEGO sets that leaves off the newest from the Harry Potter Wizarding World. This latest version of the castle and grounds keeps selling out on Amazon but still seems to be at Target, so grab it before it sells out of there, too. People rave about the building experience and how you find little surprises in every nook and cranny (there are rooms under that castle!). It’s about 2,600 pieces and for 18+, so this is another one you could do as a family. If you’re getting it for a child, note that it doesn’t have Harry Potter mini figures, just a golden statue, so you’ll want to be sure they already have Harry and team.

Based on the success of all the LEGO botanical sets for adults, this season there’s an Icon set of nine little house plants. Well, not THAT tiny — the tallest is about 6 inches tall. The build is recommended for ages 18+ and the resulting tropical plants in their pretend terracotta pots would look adorable on a bookshelf!