A New Year of Creativity and Play

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year.

Over the past days in the freezing cold of Boston, I’ve reflected back to the warm summer in Denmark in the garden of Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of the LEGO company.

At the 90 years anniversary of the LEGO Group, I was fortunate to give a speech on behalf of the LEGO Foundation.

Ole was a carpenter, who found joy in making things. During the great depression in the 1930’s in Europe, there were no requests for new houses, and instead he used the scrab wood from his workshop to create toys.

Not only did this benefit the care and active engagement with his own children (he recently lost his wife), but it also started the LEGO Idea, which has outlived most other innovations for the past 90 years.

The LEGO Idea, and the LEGO System of Play, originated from this inner deep-felt need for playful experiences, which everyone needs to develop and thrive, even under the most difficult circumstances.

This need is felt even more deeply during crisis, where play is our humankinds most essential mechanism to engage in joy, to be creative, find solutions to problems and relate to others.

This year, play has brought optimism, opportunity, and community to all areas of the world.

Here are three examples of some of the many bright moments:

• A series of new partnerships all around the world bringing more joy, optimism and engagement to the world, including Building A World Of Play.
• Young people coming together with us at the UN Transforming Education Summit in New York to draft a UN youth declaration driving political commitment for Sustainable Development.
• Several countries endorsing a new Tashkent Deceleration to include play as an essential element of early childhood at the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education.

And three examples of new insights that might enlighten the future work of 2023:

• A new global science report illustrating the impact of play across the full ecosystem of homes, schools, cities and digital spaces.
• A review of research on children’s development and learning through play with more than 300 examples from more than 40 countries
• Specific examples of how small changes to everyday moments with a joy of parenting can help children reach their full potential.

2022 was a year of growing support and excitement for children and young people’s creativity, play and learning, whether it was part of innovating education, addressing humanitarian crisis, or improving sustainability.

Thank you all, wherever you are, for the work you do to improve the lives of children through the joyful and engaging benefits of play; and remember to still take care of yourself too. Your competencies are in high demand, and somewhere there is a community and people who needs you.