Halfway to the holidays, check out the winning entries from Lego’s ‘Star Wars Holiday Contest’

About six months until the winter holidays, the winners have been announced for LEGO’s 2020 “Star Wars Holiday Contest.”

LEGO, the beloved brick-building toy company with an impressive line of “Star Wars” playsets, minifigs, dioramas and accessories, challenged fans of a galaxy far, far away with a contest this past December.

Within this contest, talented hobbyists of all ages have snapped together some remarkable, scratch-built “Star Wars” scenes displaying boundless imagination, time and patience.

Following “Star Wars Day,” and halfway to the 2021 holidays, check out the five winning entries for the “LEGO Star Wars Holiday Contest,”, all featuring festive vignettes starring a broad spectrum of “Star Wars” characters and cinematic moments pieced together using thousands of LEGO bricks.

Organized by “Star Wars: Force for Change,” FIRST, the World’s Leading Youth-Serving Nonprofit Advancing STEM Education, and the LEGO Group this past winter as tie-in event to celebrate the “LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” on Disney Plus, fans from around the world were invited to create yuletide-themed LEGO “Star Wars” builds for this contest.

Lucky winners were picked by a stellar panel of judges including actor Kelly Marie Tran who played Rose Tico in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” LEGO “Star Wars” design director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and FIRST LEGO League alumni Sanjay and Arvind Seshan.

Here are the five finalists:

Steve Leuer was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2020 “Star Wars Holiday Contest” from LEGO. (Image credit: Steve Leuer/LEGO)

Grand Prize Winner: Steve Leuer

“In my mind, [Yoda’s] teaching is all about doing your best; giving your best effort, no matter what,” Leuer, an engineering teacher, toldStarWars.com. “Don’t take the easy way out, don’t get lazy and put in a lesser effort, don’t miss an opportunity to be successful. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. This is the mindset I want my students to have.”

Lindsay Virgilio snagged the "runner up" spot for LEGO's 2020 "Star Wars Holiday Contest." — Lindsay Virgilio snagged the “runner up” spot for LEGO’s 2020 “Star Wars Holiday Contest.” (Image credit: Lindsay Virgilio/LEGO)

“Jedi stand for good and they must be their best selves to stand against darkness in a wide galaxy … if I’m out meditating, healing with Force energy, and protecting citizens of the universe, then plain old white isn’t good enough for me. Have you ever seen a bad guy wearing glittering neon rainbow robes? Nope, me neither,” Virgilio explained to StarWars.com.

Erik Etz was a runner up in LEGO's 2020 "Star Wars Holiday Contest." — Erik Etz was a runner up in LEGO’s 2020 “Star Wars Holiday Contest.” (Image credit: Erik Etz/LEGO)

Brian Steinberg was a runner up in LEGO's 2020 "Star Wars Holiday Contest." — Brian Steinberg was a runner up in LEGO’s 2020 “Star Wars Holiday Contest.” (Image credit: Brian Steinberg/LEGO)

“My initial idea was that I would build Chewbacca’s home from the original “Star Wars Holiday Special” all decorated for Life Day,” Steinberg toldStarWars.com. “I included a little decoration of a sandcrawler being pulled by an AT-AT walker and decided that a holiday-inspired Tatooine build would be a unique and exciting direction to take a Life Day celebration!”