Barnes & Noble stores are hosting LEGO holiday mini-builds from Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 15. Stores that describe the event as free give registered builders a small kit to assemble. Each location sets its own hours, reservation rules and limits. Some stores have already filled their sessions. The store listings describe a holiday-themed mini-build. Check your local listing for details about the kit and session length.

Before making the trip, open the Barnes & Noble event finder and look for “LEGO Holiday Build Event” near your city or ZIP code. Open the individual store listing. That is where you’ll find the local start time and whether the store takes reservations online, by phone or at the counter. A listing on the calendar can stay up after all the places have been taken.

How to tell whether you need a reservation

The Lake Nona store in Orlando lists a 7 p.m. Eastern session Friday. It requires online registration and one reserved spot for each participating child. It says it has no waitlist and cannot take walk-ins. The Greenwood Park Mall store in Indiana also lists a 7 p.m. Eastern Friday session, but its instructions tell families to reserve in person or by phone. Neither listing establishes how many places are still open.

At the Seven Corners store in Falls Church, Virginia, the listing calls it a make-and-take event. Builders must stay to assemble their kits. The store added an update saying registration and its waitlist were full, even though earlier instructions on the same page discussed walk-ins. The Fullerton, California, store also marks its session full with no waitlist.

Who can build and what happens to the kit

Hands assembling a small vehicle from LEGO bricks.
A LEGO build in progress. The photograph shows a separate build from the Barnes & Noble event.Nenad Stojkovic / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Many listings describe the build as best suited to ages 10 and up and say LEGO fans of all ages are welcome. Read your store’s instructions if you’re bringing younger children or more than one builder. At Lake Nona, a registered child who misses the event has three days to pick up the reserved kit. The Hilton Head Island store says any kit left unclaimed at its listed Saturday start time can go to the next customer in the store.

These are small, in-store builds, with kits available only while supplies last. If the listing asks you to reserve by phone, use the number on that page to check for a place and ask whether each builder needs a reservation. If it offers a ticket link, use the one the store provides.