Today, as we continue our adventure, I thought I’d briefly consider some sets that money can’t buy. Except on the secondary market.  Let’s have a look at some sets that have only been released as Gifts with purchase, but designed to help build up the winter Village.

3300014 Winter Sleigh Ride was released in 2011, along side the Winter Village Cottage, and available as a gift with purchase.  It again features a lamp post as well as four minifigures, although one has to wait, as the sleigh only has room for three!

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These two sets (40082, 40083) were released as gifts with purchase in October and November of 2013 respectively. the major Winter Village set that year was 10203, the Winter Village Market.  Every town needs somewhere to go to buy ( and deliver) a Christmas tree during the holiday season. Making these two sets available over subsequent months, especially where $200 was necessary to get free shipping, in the absence of a real life store became a little challenging, and saw collectors heading straight to the secondary market.

This set, 40107, was released in 2014.  It was the only real Winter Village set that year, as the ‘Creator Expert set was in fact Santa’s Workshop.  The other Vignette from that year was the Toy Workshop with elves, features here several days ago.

And a special mention goes out to this set: while not officially a Gift With Purchase ( and Arguably not the Winter Village) 40263, Christmas Town Square certainly provides a few activities to fill in the winter village: including the town Christmas tree, as well as a new mail sign/lamp post. a snowman sled and food stall

Which of these sets do you have? Did they influence your choice of timing for shopping online in the run up to the Holidays?

Another selection of tan related bricks today, with some nougat related highlights.

Another hanging decoration, complete with the red and white striped poles.  This could be an extremely small oven or fireplace, but I think there are more elements in favour of it being an oven, or even part of a bakery.   With pink frosting, I believe the snack looks good enough to eat.  What do you think of this little build? I am struggling to get it to fit into a Christmas theme, beyond the candy canes seen above.

Now I am curious… at this stage of Advent, is anyone actually still reading these all the way to the end? If so, why not not write any comment below (either on facebook, or on the blog comments.  I have a couple of ideas for how I going to finish this up… but I’d love to hear from you about any Christmas related themes or sets I have not covered so far.  Until tomorrow, Play Well.