LEGO's Christmas campaign makes gifting a little hard to let go

LEGO is taking viewers behind the scenes of a magical holiday workshop for its 2026 Christmas campaign, exploring the joy of giving, receiving and sometimes struggling to part with the perfect gift.

Titled "The LEGO holiday workshop", the global campaign centres on a 74-second film directed by Michael Gracey, known for The Greatest Showman and Better Man. Created by the brand's in-house agency, Our LEGO Agency (OLA), the film brings together familiar characters from across the LEGO universe, set to Daft Punk's hit One more time.

The film follows a single LEGO brick on a journey through the workshop, where different characters contribute their creativity and powers to transform it into a gift. Along the way, viewers encounter everything from Yeti minifigures and Marvel superheroes to racing cars and a Daft Punk concert.

Don't miss: LEGO turns 380,000 flowers into waves of colour in Shanghai

The adventure begins with Daft Punk minifigures, LEGO F1 Academy driver Esmee Kosterman and a group of Yetis racing through the snow towards a glowing yellow door. Stepping through a neon portal, they enter the workshop, where the brick travels through departments dedicated to the Northern Lights, heroes, vehicles and music.

As the brick moves through the workshop, characters including Thor, Doctor Doom and Mystique lend their powers to its creation, while engineer minifigures and unicorns give it a boost of speed. The journey eventually leads to a Daft Punk performance before the brick lands inside a LEGO gift bag.

However, the real challenge comes when the workshop crew must say goodbye to their creations. Characters including E.T., Derpy Tiger from KPop Demon Hunters and the NINJAGO Twin Titans reluctantly bid farewell to the gifts, only to reappear outside a family's living room window as a young girl begins unwrapping her present.

Unable to let go, the characters eventually join the family in building together, reinforcing the campaign's message that the joy of gifting can extend beyond the moment a present is exchanged.

Beyond the hero film, LEGO has introduced seven 15-second short-form films exploring different workshop departments, including adventure, discovery, gaming, nature and vehicles. The additional content expands on the campaign's creative universe while highlighting the different interests that LEGO sets cater to.

The campaign also draws on research commissioned by LEGO, which found that 89% of families wished they spent more time playing together. Meanwhile, 24% of parents admitted to purchasing a LEGO set as a gift partly because they would enjoy it too, while 11% said they had ended up keeping a set intended for someone else.

Extending the campaign beyond the screen, LEGO is bringing the campaign to life through festive in-store experiences and interactive activations worldwide, including immersive storefront displays in New York and London, a travelling ornament-building experience in Japan, a holiday playground in Sydney and a touring workshop in the UK.

Speaking about the creative direction, Gracey said the idea was to imagine an entire world hidden behind a secret door, with one small LEGO brick connecting characters from different universes.

"I love that something so small connects so many iconic characters from completely different universes as they each contribute to a single creation," he said.

"At its heart, it's an idea I've always believed in - that there's something incredibly joyful about making something with your own hands, but perhaps, an even greater joy in giving it to someone else."

Genevieve Hoey, senior director, global creative at Our LEGO Agency, added that the campaign was designed to capture the excitement of gifting alongside the temptation to keep something for oneself.

"We hope this film captures that feeling - The joy of giving, the excitement of receiving, and the temptation to keep the gift for yourself. One more time," she said.

LEGO is not the only brand tapping into humour and familiar faces to bring its festive storytelling to life this year. Sephora has enlisted actor and comedian Seth Rogen for its holiday campaign, "We all Sephora", which aims to make beauty gifting more approachable. Created in partnership with GUT New York and directed by Jason Woliner, the campaign follows Rogen as he navigates Sephora in search of gifts for his family and friends.

Meanwhile, SharkNinja has brought together David Beckham, Tom Brady, Kevin Hart and Aryna Sabalenka for its first-ever holiday campaign, "There’s no home like a SharkNinja home". Created by its in-house Creative Labs team and produced by Studio 99, the campaign turns a simple house-sitting arrangement into a celebrity-filled gathering, using humour and everyday household moments to spotlight its products.

Related articles: 
PRADA trades pixels for pencils this holiday season   
The Christmas Atelier hops aboard the Downtown Line  
Levi’s gets into the fuzzy spirit for the holidays