Seasonal

City Advent Calendar 2024

Twenty four tiny doors, one build a day, and honestly the best part of my December.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 60436 · 2024

Pieces195

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number60436

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The verdict

I love the ritual of this box more than almost anything else LEGO makes each year, one numbered door, one small vehicle or scene, five minutes with my coffee before the day gets away from me.

It will never wow you the way a big set does, and I do not think it is trying to. If you have a kid who counts down to Christmas, or you just like a small daily reason to sit down and build something, this delivers exactly what it promises. If you want any single day to feel like a real set on its own, you will be disappointed, because that is not what an advent calendar is for.

Best for: families building one small scene together each December, and City theme collectors who want the little exclusive vehicles

The full review

What it is

The City Advent Calendar is not a set so much as a habit. Every year LEGO packs a numbered grid of small doors into one box, and behind each one is either a tiny vehicle, a mini scene, a minifig, or just a handful of accessory pieces. The 2024 version, 60436, sticks to that exact formula with 195 pieces split across 24 days. There is no big reveal at the end, no giant model waiting behind door 24. What you get instead is a string of small, quick, satisfying five minute builds that make the run up to Christmas feel a little more special.

The catch

I will be honest about where this comes up short. Some doors are genuinely fun, a little snowplow, a market stall, a tree. Other doors are just a printed tile or a single brick, and that is where the calendar earns its fair share of criticism online every single year. Part count per day works out to well under ten pieces on average, so if you are judging this the way you judge a normal set, on pieces per dollar or build complexity, it will look thin. It is also strictly a seasonal product. Once the 24 days are done there is not much reason to keep it out, and City fans looking for a serious display piece should look elsewhere entirely.

Who it's for

Buy this if you have a kid, or you are a kid at heart, who wants a reason to build something small every day in December, or if you collect City theme minifigs and small exclusive vehicles and do not mind paying for 24 days of variety instead of one big model. Skip it if you want your money going toward piece count and build time, or if the idea of a door with a single 1x1 brick behind it is going to annoy you more than charm you, because some doors really are that small.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is less about any single day and more about the rhythm of it. You open a numbered door, pull out a tiny bag, and in a few minutes you have added a small vehicle or scene to the shelf next to yesterday's. Nothing here challenges you the way a real set does, there is no tricky technique or clever swooshable model hiding behind a door, it is meant to be light and fast, something you do with a kid or with your morning coffee rather than something you sit down and focus on.

The value is in the variety rather than any one standout piece. Across the 24 days you get a mix of small City vehicles, a scene or two, a minifig or small figure, and a run of individual accessory elements and printed tiles that round out a winter City display. None of it is going to turn heads on its own, and a few of the plainer days get called out every year as filler, but taken as a whole the calendar builds toward a small cohesive December scene that costs a lot less than any comparable set with that many separate elements.

Fun facts

01LEGO has released a City theme advent calendar every year for over a decade, and the format, 24 numbered doors, small builds, one exclusive scene, has stayed almost identical from year to year
02City advent calendars are always seasonal releases, sold only in the run up to Christmas and retired once the holiday season ends, so 60436 has not been available at retail since late 2024
03the calendars are consistently one of LEGO's best value entry points for new or younger builders, since the per day format breaks a normal set into small low pressure sessions instead of one long build
04LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars are the two themes that reliably get an advent calendar every single year, longer than almost any other theme in the LEGO catalog