LEGO Winter Village 10339 Santa’s Post Office review

This year’s LEGO Winter Village set revisits the concept of a post office through a fantasy lens, and the result is a solid slice of festive fun – if not quite an outright Christmas miracle.

The LEGO Group has already rolled out a Winter Village post office in the aptly-named 10222 Winter Village Post Office, one of the very first sets in the long-running LEGO Icons (once LEGO Creator Expert) subtheme. 10339 Santa’s Post Office serves up something less rooted in reality and more in line with the fantastical 10275 Elf Club House, 10267 Gingerbread House and 10245 Santa’s Workshop, and for those on board with this style of Winter Village set, it’s the sort of thing that makes you wish it could be Christmas every day.

Release: October 1, 2024 Price: £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 Pieces: 1,440 Minifigures: 5 LEGO: Order now

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We say ‘for those on board’ because a clear split in the style of Winter Village sets has emerged over the past few years, and with it a split in audience. On one hand you’ve got the more grounded sets like 10293 Santa’s Visit, 10308 Holiday Main Street and 10325 Alpine Lodge, and on the other you’ve got more whimsical models like 10245 Santa’s Workshop, 10267 Gingerbread House, 10275 Elf Club House and now 10339 Santa’s Post Office. Not everyone is going to enjoy both sides of that Christmas coin – but this set very much feels like the LEGO Group trying to bridge the gap and reach the middle ground between those two approaches.

While at first glance 10339 Santa’s Post Office seems like a clear-cut fantasy set, much of the model (beyond its characters) could easily be repurposed as a general Winter Village post office, and one that’s leagues ahead of its 2011 predecessor. This is an attractive and accomplished building (sand blue and nougat make for pleasant bedfellows) with plenty of details inside and out, from the log fire, writing desk and coffee machine to the icicles, bows and brick-built bugle. None of these icons really feel specific to Santa and the elves, so you could always sub in regular minifigures if that’s more your style. Even the hot air balloon is just a fun way to get around and deliver mail.

But still: none of this is to say that it doesn’t fit the fanciful nature of the Gingerbread House, Santa’s Workshop and so on. The candy cane posts outside the main doors, bright colours used for the sorting chutes (more on those later) and the toboggan keep the needle firmly pointed towards whimsy (if you so desire), as does the pond from which one of the elves is apparently fishing out lost letters with the help of a cute baby seal, and the other elf guiding the hot air balloon into place with a pair of trans-red marshalling wands. The Winter Village sets are getting better and better at these storytelling moments, and 10339 Santa’s Post Office is packed with them.

Santa Claus is coming to… collect your mail

Of course, it has a great starting point, because the idea of Santa and his elves operating a post office is a concept that sells itself – even if the mail here is mostly one-way (unless you add on 40746 Santa's Delivery Truck). The elves can receive and categorise kids’ letters to Santa by way of that deceptively simple sorting machine mentioned earlier, which is a standalone sub-assembly that hooks on to the back of the building.

Drop mail down either of the chutes – from the hot air balloon or the writing desk – and you can decide which of the two carts it drops into, red or green, presumably to determine whether its author is on the naughty or nice list. There are plenty of parcels and letters littered around too, with a couple of new printed tiles adding variety to the standard LEGO envelopes (though there are still a handful of stickers in the mix), so you’ll never be short on mail to sort.

Tossing in a hot air balloon just dials up the fun, and combining dark green, gold and red is about as festive as it gets. There’s a neat spot on the building for it to land and start delivering parcels, but even when it’s floated off the post office doesn’t look lacking. Pushing the rapier jutting from the top of the balloon will also activate the set’s requisite light brick, illuminating the fire that propels it around the village.

All you’ll want for Christmas is this set

10339 Santa’s Post Office obviously includes Santa, who returns with dual-moulded boots, but also a solid workforce of four elves to man day-to-day operations. You couldn’t really ask for more from a set like this, and indeed it’s in lockstep with line-ups in previous fantasy Winter Village sets like 10245 Santa’s Workshop and 10275 Elf Club House. The baby seal is the cherry on the cake – and it adds just a little bit of extra value to a set that happily maintains this subtheme’s consistent price point of £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99, even while other themes are constantly pushing up prices.

You’ll have few qualms paying full price for it either, because there’s a lot going on here for the money. You’re getting 1,440 pieces, roughly in line with recent sets (and with those big hot air balloon elements too), a hefty and detailed main structure, a handful of side builds – the postbox with signposts to previous sets is a nice touch, and even the compulsory Christmas tree tries out a new technique – and a bunch of minifigures. There’s honestly not a lot to criticise beyond maybe the colours used for the sorting machine, which cross the line just slightly from fantastical to junior.

Look past those though and you’ll find a stand-out set in the Winter Village Collection, up there with the modern classic that is 10293 Santa’s Visit. It’s more than enough to get you in the Christmas spirit regardless of the fact it's only September. Excuse us while we go put up the tree…

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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Our honest opinion: A satisfying execution of a fun concept makes for another home run for the Winter Village Collection.