Driving Home for Christmas

Rea wrote it and first released it in 1986 as a B-side to Hello Friend. A re-recorded version with strings appeared on New Light Through Old Windows in October 1988, and was issued as the fourth single from it in November 1988, reaching number 53 as the lead track of The Christmas EP. Record Mirror's David Giles called it a jaunty, happy song.

Rea said he wrote the idea in 1978, when he needed to get home to Middlesbrough from Abbey Road Studios and his wife drove down in her Austin Mini because the record company would not pay for the train. Looking at the other motorists, who all looked so miserable, he began singing the line. He called it a car version of a carol and said he wrote it for Van Morrison but never got it to him. The tune came later, when he improvised something in a Count Basie style while testing pianos with the keyboard player Max Middleton, who played the jazzy intro on the finished record.

Afterlife

It has returned to the British singles chart every year since 2007, when it reached number 33, and reached number 10 in 2021. Its BPI certification rose from Silver to four times Platinum between 2014 and 2025. Rea never played it on tour until 20 December 2014 at Hammersmith Odeon, when the crew hired 12 snow cannons and the venue charged him 12,000 pounds to clean up. Stacey Solomon covered it in 2011 as her debut single, which reached number 27.