Friends

Holiday Ski Slope and Café

A cozy little ski resort that quietly earns a spot in your winter village.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 41756 · 2023

Pieces980

Minifigs3

Year2023

Set number41756

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The verdict

This is the Friends set that snuck up on me.

It looks like a sweet snow scene on the box, but the building itself has a real ski shop, a café, and a slope that winds down the whole side, and it slots into a winter village display better than almost any City set. It won me over slowly. If you love warm holiday builds and you can forgive a couple of odd filler bits, you'll get a lot of joy out of this one.

Best for: Winter village builders who want a warm, playable snow scene that mixes into a City display

The full review

The Holiday Ski Slope and Café is a 980-piece LEGO® set from the rebooted 2023 Friends line, and it does something clever that the box photo undersells. Instead of a single flat storefront, you get a whole layered resort. There is a ski shop and a café built into one structure, and a snow slope that starts up over the shops and winds down the side with little trees dotted along the way. The first time you see it finished, it reads less like a girls-aisle playset and more like a warm corner of an alpine town. That is exactly why winter village fans keep quietly folding it into their December displays.

I'll be straight with you about where it wobbles. For a set built entirely around a ski slope, there's no ski lift and no obvious way to get a minidoll back up to the top once she's slid down. Builders have pointed at the older 41324 lift as the fix, but you shouldn't have to buy a second set to close that loop. There are a couple of other bits that feel like they wandered in from another box, like a campfire with nowhere to sit and a berry bush that doesn't add much. And the two largest stickers go on the soda machine, so if you were hoping for printed panels there, you'll be reaching for the sticker sheet instead. At around 8 cents a piece it's fair rather than a bargain, though the trees, the snow fox, and the sheer amount of finished structure pull the value back up.

So who actually loves this? If you build a winter village every year, or you want a snow scene with genuine play value that your kids will rearrange a hundred times, grab it without much hesitation. The browns and greens make it an easy convert for City streets, and the slope is a real toy, not just a shelf piece. If you're a pure display collector chasing clever engineering or a big set-piece moment, you might find it a touch simple and a touch scattered. But as a cozy holiday build that mixes joy and playability, it's one of the nicer Friends efforts of its year, and it earns its keep on a snowy shelf.

One extra note worth flagging: the set retired at the end of 2024, so the friendly retail price is behind us now. If it's on your list, it's worth grabbing before aftermarket prices climb the way retired holiday sets tend to.

The parts story

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

The build comes in eight numbered bags and moves through the resort in stages, which keeps the pace lively. You start on the ground with the ski shop and café, working through the brickwork and the little shop accessories, then build up and out into the slope that arcs over the top. The snow section uses a flex tube and some angled plate work to get that swooping downhill shape, and there are studs set into the slope so a minidoll can perch on her snowboard mid-run. Pull the figures off and it becomes a functional snow ramp, so it flips between display and play without any drama. The trees lined along the run are the piece that ties the whole thing together and makes it feel like a real mountainside.

For the parts hunters, the standout isn't a rare new mold so much as clever reuse. Aaron's crutches are actually paint roller pieces repurposed as assistive walking sticks, which is a lovely bit of parts thinking, and he comes in an exclusive Nordic-patterned sweater with sturdy boots. All three minidolls (Liann, Zac and Aaron) are exclusive to this set, so completists take note. The bench built from an old snowboard is a genuine nod to the recycled furniture you actually see around real ski resorts. You also get an 8x16 plate, that flex tube for the slope, and a snow fox to tuck into the trees. It's not a parts-monster set, but the winter greenery, snowy slope elements and warm café colors make it a quietly useful box to raid for anyone building a cold-weather scene.

Fun facts

01Aaron is widely regarded as one of the first LEGO Friends characters to represent a mobility difference, arriving with crutches (built from paint roller elements) and sturdy boots.
02The bench is modeled on an upcycled snowboard, echoing the real recycled ski and board furniture you find dotted around actual mountain resorts.
03The set launched in June 2023 as part of the rebooted Friends line and its wider cast, then retired in December 2024 after about a year and a half on shelves.
04All three minidolls (Liann, Zac and Aaron) are exclusive to this set and don't appear in any other LEGO release.