Gibsons has just opened pre-orders for its new season, and we've added the full run to the shop. There are more than twenty new titles — a proper Christmas collection, a few classic British scenes, and a handful that don't fit any box at all. We're expecting them with us around the 10th of July, and you can reserve any of them now.
The Christmas collection
Gibsons plans Christmas early, and this year's festive titles are some of the nicest we've seen from them. If you like to have next winter's puzzle sorted well before the shops fill up, now is the time.
A Christmas Wander is the big set-piece: a snowy village at dusk, families out walking, a lit church spire behind the rooftops and The Swan pub done up in wreaths and fairy lights. There's a snowman, a couple of dogs, children on bikes and scooters, and star-shaped lights strung across the street. It's 1,000 pieces, and full of the small, warm details that make a scene like this worth sitting with.
Festive Farm is Lucy Grossmith at her folk-art best — a snowed-in farm with a bright red tractor, geese underfoot, a highland cow, and a border of robins, blackbirds and berries running round the edge. It's flatter and more decorative than a traditional painting, which makes a nice change of pace. There's a 1,000-piece version and a large-piece 250XL if you'd prefer something gentler on the eyes.
Moonlight Magic is three 500-piece puzzles in one box, all sharing a nocturnal woodland theme: a sleeping fox, an owl beneath a full moon, thistles and winter foliage in deep orange and midnight blue. Three smaller builds like this are ideal if you'd rather finish something over an evening or two.
Great British scenes
The other half of the Gibsons look is the classic British scene — busy, detailed and full of things to spot. Two of the new ones stand out.
A Look at London gathers the lot into one 1,000-piece picture: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, a red bus, a Beefeater, a guardsman and Buckingham Palace, arranged around a central roundel of the skyline. It's the sort of puzzle where you sort by landmark and work outwards.
Steve Crisp's Off to the Races at Newmarket is race day on the high street — the old clock tower, a vintage convertible with a couple of dogs aboard, racegoers in their best hats, blossom on the trees and a hot-air balloon overhead. Warm, sunny and packed with incident, it's the opposite mood to the Christmas titles and just as easy to lose an afternoon to.
And a few surprises
Not everything this season fits a theme. A few of the new titles are simply here for the fans.
The officially licensed Phantom of the Opera — Let the Dream Begin is the most dramatic of the bunch: the masked Phantom and Christine framed by a gold-and-crimson border of roses, candles and a chandelier. One for anyone who likes a bit of theatre.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a decorative montage rather than a single scene — Alice at the centre with her cat, ringed by the Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and a scattering of the book's best-known lines. There's plenty to read as you build it.
For a hit of nostalgia, Beano: 75 Years of Dennis the Menace reproduces a classic Beano cover and strip, Gnasher and all, across two 500-piece puzzles. A treat for anyone who grew up with a comic on a Thursday.
And It's A Cat's Life, illustrated by The Art File, is just what it sounds like: dozens of cats — tabbies, tuxedos, gingers, one in a scarf — dotted across a soft mint-green background, no two quite the same. A gentle, cheerful build, and a safe bet for the cat people in your life.
How pre-orders work
Reserving a pre-order works like any other order: you pay at checkout and we set a copy aside for you. We dispatch it the moment it reaches us — which we're expecting to be around the 10th of July, though the date comes from Gibsons and can move by a little either way. If you order a pre-order next to something that's already in stock, we'll hold it and send everything together when the new titles land, or you can ask us to send the in-stock part on ahead. UK delivery is a flat £3.97 no matter how much you order.
And one promise: if a title we're expecting doesn't reach us for any reason, we'll let you know straightaway and refund you in full. You're never left waiting in the dark.
This is only a quick tour of the highlights. The full season has more still — extra sizes, a Tower Bridge at Christmas, Moonlit Stroll, Castles of England, Vet on Call and even a circular Winter Story among them. You'll find everything that's coming soon on our pre-orders page.
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