Lego Christmas tree lights up Sydney
A 10-metre tall Christmas tree built out of Lego stands tall in Sydney, Australia to celebrate the holiday season.
To celebrate the holiday season, Lego has built a giant Christmas tree in Sydney, Australia, complete with a life-sized, surfboard-wielding Santa and sleigh.
The tree, which has been unveiled in the Pitt Street Mall, stands nearly 10 metres (32.8ft) tall -- taller than an average two-storey house and wider than a car, Lego said. It weighs 3.5 tons, and is built from over half a million bricks, comprising a combination of Lego and Duplo. It is not the tallest Lego tree ever built -- that honour belongs to a Christmas tree built by Bright Bricks in the UK, standing 12.2 metres (40ft) -- but it's the tallest the southern hemisphere has ever seen.
"I'm incredibly proud to be involved in bringing this impressive Lego Christmas Tree to life for Australian fans. It's my biggest build to date and I hope it inspires Lego fans of all ages to build their own Christmas memories," said Lego Certified Professional Ryan McNaught, who supervised the building of the tree.
A team of five people built the tree, a task which took around 1,200 hours. The final model also includes, among the basketball-sized baubles, a Christmas koala, a pile of gifts and a reindeer designed by 10-year-old Lego Club member Luke Francis, who entered and won a competition to have his creation on display.
"It was so exciting to be up on stage and see my reindeer standing on a present all built out of Lego bricks," Francis said. "It was also very cool to turn on the lights using a Lego light switch, it's not every day I can do that."
The tree will be on display in the Pitt Street Mall until December 26, with light shows every evening at 8:00 p.m., 8:15 p.m., 8:30 p.m., 8:45 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. If you can't get to Sydney to see it, you can check out a fabulous time lapse of its construction and a video of its grand unveiling below.