Lite-Brite

Push in the colored pegs, turn down the lights and watch your picture glow!

Start with a light box, a black sheet of paper, and a pile of little colored plastic pegs. Push the pegs through the grid and into the paper, turn on the light, and the picture starts glowing one little dot at a time.

Lite-Brite was introduced in the 1960s. The original version used an ordinary incandescent light bulb inside the box and came with hundreds of colored pegs and paper templates for making different pictures. You could follow the patterns or just make your own.

Part of the fun was watching the picture slowly appear as you filled in the holes. Put in the right colors, turn down the room lights, and suddenly that black sheet of paper looked a lot more impressive.

The Lite-Brite has held up pretty well over the years. I remember making designs of a decorated tree with presents underneath on Christmas morning, and taking the Lite-Brite into a darkened room to admire the results. And, making a continuous “spiral” pattern, starting at the outer edges and working towards the middle, alternating colors until the entire display was filled - that made a really nice night light in my room!

Modern Lite-Brites use LEDs instead of the hot bulb inside the old version, but the basic setup hasn't changed much. There is a really cool modern twist to the original, the Lite Brite Touch XL does not have separate pegs that you have to insert - the grid/screen is made up of rows and columns of push button LEDs that you just press to turn them on and press again to cycle them through the various colors. That makes it much more suitable for younger kids and for travel - there are no small pieces to worry about or lose.