Book review: Holiday spins out of control in ‘The Night the Lights Went Out on Christmas’

The neighborhood over a couple blocks is all lit up.

There are inflatable Santas there, musical reindeer, twinkly lights and candy canes that are taller than Daddy. It's really pretty, and sometimes you wonder how many lights there are. In the new book, "The Night the Lights Went Out on Christmas," by Ellis Paul, pictures by Scott Brundage, the answer could be that there's one too many.

Every year for the past 55 years, the Johnsons have decorated their house for Christmas. It started with one tree. Then they put lights on the house. Then they added blinkers on the chimney, the roof, the mailbox, there were statues, an electric petting zoo, even their dog's house was lit up for Christmas.

Most folks in the neighborhood put up a single string of lights, but one year, the Smiths got a neon Santa. Then the Williams family got into the act, the Wheelers decorated their house, and the Greenbergs put up giant dreidels for Hanukkah. The Jacksons couldn't be left out in the cold, so they put up snowmen even though everyone lived in a warm-weather climate.

By 1989, December saw the neighborhood "so darned cluttered" that you could barely see the houses behind the lights! There were Santas and dancing elves, penguins, sleighs, igloos, fake snow, blinky-blinky-blink. Even astronauts could see the lights from outer space, while on Earth entire cars full of people drove up and down the street to look, which only added to the commotion.

Then came the year when almost every square inch of the block was decorated. Just the tip-top of one tree was without lights until Missy Johnson climbed a ladder, placed a star on that high-up branch, and her brother flipped a switch…

And the lights in town went out.

The lights in America went out. Then Canada, Mexico, Paris, Japan, Rio, Johannesburg, Sydney and St. Petersburg — poof!

And yet — there were still lights! Where did they come from?

You've seen it happen: Someone puts up outdoor decorations, and their neighbors spend the holidays keeping up with the Clauses. Chances are, your children have been begging to see such a sight because the blinky things seem to be a necessity this time of year … or are they? "The Night the Lights Went Out on Christmas" shows your child another option.

With a semi-rhyming story, author-songwriter Paul gets the holiday hoopla exactly right and that, plus colorfully chaotic illustrations by Brundage, will make your kids laugh. If you've ever seen one-upmanship in action, you'll find the humor, too, but keep reading. What happens at the end wraps this tale up so perfectly that you'll want to go back and look again, just to be charmed anew.

And there's more: this book, meant for kids ages 4 to 7, includes a website address so they can listen to a holiday song while they've got this book in their hands. And hold it, they will. For them, "The Night the Lights Went Out on Christmas" will light up their holiday.

— View publishes Terri Schlichenmeyers reviews of books for children weekly.