Online Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle of a LEGO ® Winter Village Scene

LEGO has been a favourite construction toy for over 50 years, and today is used as a creative passtime for young and old alike. The founder of LEGO was a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen. He started making wooden toys in his workshop in Denmark in 1932 and the company was given its name in 1934. The name LEGO comes from the two Danish words "Leg" and "Godt" which together mean "play well". When Ole Kirk Christiansen first thought up the name he didn't realise that the word LEGO also can mean "I put together" in Latin.

After the Second World War plastics became readily available and the company made their first construction bricks in 1949, which they initially called "Automatic Binding Bricks". Their name was changed to LEGO Bricks in 1953 but these first bricks had limited versatility and locking ability. This was greatly improved by the now-familiar tube structure on the underside of the bricks and the modern style of LEGO bricks were born in 1958.

Since then, billions of those colorful tiny plastic bricks have been produced. In fact, studies in the first decade of the 21st century have calculated that there are 62 pieces of LEGO for every person in the world!

There are around 2,350 different pieces and 52 different colors. One of the great advantages about LEGO is that all LEGO sets since 1958 are compatible with each other. This allows you to make interesting and creative composite scenes, like combining the Christmas village scene in this jigsaw puzzle with the Eiffel Tower or virtually anything your imagination could think up.

The first LEGOland was opened on 7th June 1968 in Billund in Denmark. Today there are a total of six LEGOland attractions spanning Europe, the United States of America and Asia.

LEGO mini figures of people were first released in 1975 but originally didn't have any arms or legs. The yellow skin of LEGO people was designed to ensure racial equality, althought slightly more realistic skin tones were intoduced in 2003 when basketball characters based on actual people.

As at 2011, the biggest LEGO set by number of pieces is the Taj Mahal, with 5922 pieces. When assembled, the building measures over 20 inches long and 16 inches high. Just behind the Taj Mahal, Han Solo's spaceship, the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars comes in as the second biggest set, with 5,195 pieces. Good trumphs over evil even in LEGO rankings, as the Death Star ranks at only 4th largest with 3,803 pieces. London's Tower Bridge is 3rd largest in what would be precarious position between the Millenium Falcon and The Death Star. Ah well, it was nice knowing you, London...Zap!