Christmas Lights

At the end of the day, as the light fades, a little girl and her dad set off in the car to drive home for Christmas. In a series of beautiful snowy scenes, the girl and her dad drive along empty roads, watching the northern lights turn in the sky and the trees that sparkle with frost. As they drive through a town, fairy lights glimmer in the windows, and the street lights guide them: then, as they reach home, they follow the path to their house, where the warm lights welcome them.

This short, atmospheric book is full of paper-engineered flaps and turn wheels that make the “lights” in the beautiful scenes flicker on and off in a delightful way, whether it’s the car’s lights that flick on as the little girl opens the gate or the stars (and Santa in his sleigh) that wheel around in the indigo night sky. Rabei’s illustration is perfectly magical and comforting, as is the simple text that creates a sense of real cosy festiveness.