Forget the Kids — These LEGO Sets Are for the Grown-Ups

I played with LEGOs plenty as a child, alongside my brother. It was so fun to rediscover them, a couple of decades later, with my kids. I still can get happily lost following LEGO’s wordless directions to build a house or a Harry Potter scene or something like the LEGO Friends Theatre School Playset I got my 10-year-old niece last year.

Here’s the bummer: The kids don’t usually want my help. Maybe when they were preschoolers they occasionally needed me to find the one brick they needed among the one thousand LEGOs spilled on the floor — I skill I excelled at, by the way. (We never learned or used a color-coded LEGO storage solution, nor did we work to keep LEGO sets stored together for longer than it took to first build them. Our bricks were just dumped in a tub. I call it happy chaos.)

I miss playing with LEGOs, and LEGO has recognized me and the millions of other “kidults” who want LEGOs of their own. And so there are now LEGO sets that we can buy for ourselves, build by ourselves, and even display without looking foolish. Sets that include LEGO Modern Art for Your Walls and more, including my favorites, the LEGO floral sets.

Isn’t the Dried Flowers set beautiful? You could use it as fall decor or a Thanksgiving centerpiece. It’s that pretty! These sets are age-graded for adults 18+, but the kids can help. The floral sets are slightly challenging, but under a thousand pieces, so you don’t need to be an expert. 

I compare the meditative qualities of building these LEGO sets to doing jigsaw puzzles. I love puzzles, too, but they take over an entire table and these days I don’t have a table to spare. I’d rather make a small but pretty LEGO set like these succulents — a set that has more than 7,000 five-star Amazon reviews

I haven’t yet graduated to any larger LEGO adult sets, but I have my eye on this sweet cabin that just came out in May. Listen, I know it has mini-figures (and a squirrel!) and is kind of a dollhouse. But I know friends who would totally get into building this with me as a weekend project while we gab and catch up.

Maybe it’s less useful than knitting a blanket, but I could build the LEGO cabin and then my 7-year-old niece could play with it when she visits. That is how I am justifying it in my head.

There are holiday-themed adult LEGOs, too, meant for display during the season. They’re great family group projects that can help you all happily pass vacation hours. (Especially if your kids don’t like competitive games, like my kids. There are no losers in LEGOs!) Check out this set, which can be divided and conquered.

The end result can go under the tree or on top of the mantel, or it can become a table centerpiece. Although it’s age-graded for 18+, I think younger teens can join in — those who want to “play” at the holidays but who feel too old for traditional toys. These sets get them off of their devices and sitting down with you. Those are some happy holiday moments for sure!