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Festive Seniors Build Christmas Tree Made of LEGOs and a Fireplace With Santa's Feet Sticking Out

Festive Seniors Build Christmas Tree Made of LEGOs and a Fireplace With Santa's Feet Sticking Out
After their kids outgrew their LEGO sets, father Mike and mother Catherine started a rampant Christmas building tradition.

A LEGO-loving couple have created a bit of festive cheer by making an entire wall, fireplace and tree from the plastic blocks in their living room.

For the last 28 years Mike Addis and his wife Catherine Weightman have built amazing LEGO sculptures each Christmas.

Previous creations include a 21-foot London Bridge and a 12-foot replica of Ely cathedral.

Inspired by extension work being done on their house in Cambridgeshire, they decided to cover a wall in their living room with a LEGO replica, complete with Christmas tree, festive decorations, and a fireplace with Santa's feet sticking out.

There also can be found LEGO mince pies, a LEGO matchbox, and LEGO candles that light up on the mantelpiece.

But apart from the incredible ingenuity needed to create the piece, it's had the side effect of reducing their heating bills through the energy expenditure of stacking bricks all evening.

Addis said they committed between two to four hours each evening for two months to complete it.

"It's quite a social thing and it keeps us warm too," said Adids. "You can't believe building LEGO which doesn't involve a lot of movement would, but you could actually switch the heating off."

"It's all the getting up and down and fiddling around with the pieces."

"It's amazing even in this cold weather to not have to put the wood burner on because we're warm enough."

The couple used an estimated 400,000 pieces for the structure, a lot of which went into making the ‘brick' wall stable enough.

Despite the masterpieces they have created in the past, it was the Christmas tree that was the hardest for Mike this year.

Mike and Catherine’s previous creations

"Imagine trying to create the shape of a tree in square blocks," said the retired economics professor. "In order to stand it upright we had to build it into the wall. The wall itself is quite heavy and is tied to our curtain rod."

The couple started their passion by creating LEGO sculptures with their children, who are all now adults and have apparently outgrown their LEGO sets.

Mike and Catherine’s previous creations

The family would feature their LEGO builds in Christmas cards each year but now Addis says people expect them to do it.

"We enjoy doing it, it's the satisfaction of completing something so big and technically interesting. It's better than watching telly."

The couple then host a ‘take down' party each January in which friends with ‘high-pressure jobs' come with wine and food to help dismantle the structure over some dedicated nights.

WATCH an interview with the intrepid home builders. 

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