Couple get into the festive spirit by making gigantic Lego gingerbread house
At their home in Huntingdon are Lego desginers (l-r) Mike Addis and his wife Catherine Weightman. - Credit: Archant
A gingerbread house is just the thing to make a lovely centrepiece for the table at Christmas.
In the Addis household, however, it takes up half of the living room and is it is definitely not edible. That’s because it is not made of dough or ginger biscuits – but more than 100,000 Lego bricks. Mike Addis and Catherine Weightman, of Great Northern Street, Huntingdon, never lost their childhood passion for building with the interlocking toy bricks, and now they make a huge statue or object every year in the run up to Christmas.
When their children – Thomas, Holly and Christopher – came along they began as a family making the gigantic constructions. Although the children got older they lost interest, Catherine’s parents Neil and Alice join in.
Mike, a teacher at Hinchingbrooke School, and Catherine have now reached something of a milestone – the gingerbread house marks the 20th anniversary of their Christmas Lego building challenge.
Their favourites over the years have included a nutcracker, a church, postbox, and Dalek. The couple began their current marathon quest two months ago and now the gingerbread house is almost finished.
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“The construction is all made from individual bricks – we don’t use any kits,” said Catherine, a senior advisor with Natural England. “We work to an image and then just scale it up. Once you start with something like this it’s just one of those things – you don’t want to stop. We really enjoy it.”
Surprisingly, the couple have never contacted Lego about their annual Lego build... so The Hunts Post did it for them!
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Lego UK PR manager Emma Owen said: “We have full admiration for Mike and Catherine’s commitment to their Christmas builds, they are a shining example of what Lego is all about. Building with 100,000 bricks is no mean feat, we have used 120,000 bricks to build our snow globe in Covent Garden, perhaps Mike and Catherine can help us next year!”
