Brilliant light in sky with smaller light separating and descending to the ground.In the early morning of Thursday 25th December 08, my wife and I were travelling from Hinckley in Leicestershire to Earl Shilton. We were visiting friends after attending a midnight Christmas service at a local Church. At approximately 12:30 am we entered the A47 perimeter road into Earl Shilton, which is under construction.Just before entering the road entitled “Carr’s Hill”, I observed a large reddish light towards the northeast. The light was stationary or moving very slowly. I did not mention it to my wife at the time as she was driving. Suddenly the light became slightly brighter and from beneath the light appeared a smaller light, which immediately descended to the ground and disappeared The smaller light seemed to be controlled as it descended very slowly.I mentioned it to my wife and she confirmed she had also observed it. We drove to the other side of Shilton, which opens up to the soar valley and we would be able to see the night view of the countryside stretching to the light haze of Leicester, however both light sources were not to be seen.Due to observing only a light source in the middle of the night, I am unable to give a true perspective of size, the light source did disappear behind the hill of Earl Shilton village and therefore the light source would have been of considerable size. Using this perspective I would estimate that the light descended toward the area of small village called Thurlaston. My wife and I can only rule out a Meteor, as the light was all but stationary, with complete cloud cover. Or a Firework, as it appeared in the sky for too long to sustain such brightness and besides flares go up not down.