I have noticed that LEGO releases every Christmas season a Winter model series for the past 2 years. My wife likes decorating every Christmas with my daughter and we were contemplating before on getting those miniature Christmas houses/sets that are made of ceramic But since LEGO have these models, I then decided that instead of those ceramics, we will just collect these model series.

It has the following advantages on my point of view.

1. It then let us get together every Christmas to decorate our house
2. It makes my little girl appreciate how to collect and take care of toys properly
3. It also makes her learn how to follow the instructions, at the same time be creative in her own way.
4. It makes us anticipate to assemble it every season and make us wait in anticipation on what will be the new model the next Christmas.

On to the review:
1. Minifigs: 5 adult minifigs (2 Female/3 Males(Baker, Horse carriage driver, Seller of pine trees) 2 kids and 1 lower half body stuck in snow.
I like this very much since it has various features especially 2 who has double sided faces which you can change.

2. Construction:
a. Christmas Tree stall: Simple but with colorful roof and has stickers for the banner of the stall. (Wish it was printed instead)

b. Ice skating area: This I like very much since you can pose the minifigs in different ways.Also the minifigs has ice skates :)

c. Bakery shop: This is the main construction, This occupied a lot of pages on the instruction but it is well worth it. What I like this very much again are due to the nice big windows with "plastic" glass, swinging door and also the window frames. Nice slanting roof for the second floor and open back for you to pose the minifigs particularly the oven itself.

The second floor has 1 functional room. The other one is not since the Brick LIGHT is placed there so that when you press on the button it will light up the 1st floor with the different pastries.

d. The Horse Carriage: Very nice since it has an animal included, Horse with functional and swinging sides and back of the carriage so you can pose it as if you are placing the pine trees.

e. Other items I feel are included that make this a must have. Pine trees 4 pcs, the horse, shoe skates and a camera and apple for the little boys, also the different kinds of bread included, plus an axe, shovel, hoe and horse whip. I almost forgot an Owl figure for the flag pole.

3. Sturdiness: The main bakery shop is quite sturdy except for the lamp post that get easily removed if you handle it as well as the brick light placed hanging on the second floor and the roof on top of it. It Easily falls off if you handle it hard. The Pine tree stall has a small base which I just wished it was wider or larger to make it more stable.

4. Some minor gripes:
I have noted that my set has gray single studs instead of black for the lamp post, but looking at it now, it gave some contrast appearance instead of a dull black lamp post. Not sure if LEGO changed it without changing the instructions but I guess this made it unique for this model I got.

5. Modifiable: Well my daughter modified the hair, bodies of the minifigs. As in switching between the minifigs, I let her play with her imagination. :)
Since I bought a Santa Claue with Reindeer last Christmas (# 40010) I can place the whole piece on the top of the Bakery Roof as if Santa is either landing or flying away near the chimney. :) That is way cool for me. :)

So overall, I would say 5 stars for me since I plan to collect this Winter series every year to add to the growing Christmas decors for our family. However, If you dont like the seasonality of this series, then get other models.